EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 23, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 7108, entitled "An act granting
a pension to Andrew J. Wilson."
It appears that this man was drafted and entered the service in
February, 1865, and was discharged in September of the same year on
account of "chronic nephritis and deafness."
In 1882 he filed his application for a pension, alleging that in June,
1865, from exposure, he contracted rheumatism. Afterwards he described
his trouble as inflammation of the muscles of the back, with pain in the
kidneys. In another statement, filed in December, 1884, he alleges that
while in the service he contracted diarrhea and was injured in one of
his testicles, producing a rupture.
Whatever else may be said of this claimant's achievements during his
short military career, it must be conceded that he accumulated a great
deal of disability.
There is no doubt in my mind that whatever ailments he may honestly lay
claim to, his title to the same was complete before he entered the Army.