EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 29, 1886_.
_To the Senate_:
I hereby return Senate bill No. 1797, entitled "An act granting a
pension to John S. Kirkpatrick."
This claimant appears to have enlisted December 10, 1861, and to have
been discharged December 20, 1864. He is borne upon the rolls of his
company as present up to June, 1862; in July and August, 1862, as on
detached service as hospital attendant, and so reported February 28,
1863. In March and April, 1863, he is reported as present, and in May
and June, 1863, as on detached service. There is nowhere in his service
any record of disability.
He filed his application for a pension in 1880, in which he alleged that
from hardship and exposure on a long march in New Mexico in the month of
December, 1862, he contracted varicose veins in his legs.
As I understand the record given above, this claimant was on detached
service from July, 1862, to February, 1863.
It will be observed that his claim is that he contracted his disability
within that time, and in December, 1862. He appears also to have served
for two years after the date of his alleged injury, and that he did not
file his application for pension till about sixteen years afterwards.
His claim is still pending, undetermined, in the Pension Bureau, and if
there is merit in it there is no doubt that he will be able to make it
apparent.