EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 19, 1887_.
_To the Senate_:
I herewith return without approval Senate bill No. 859, entitled "An act
granting a pension to Charlotte O'Neal."
This bill proposes to grant a pension to the beneficiary therein named
as the widow of Richard O'Neal, late colonel of the Twenty-sixth
Regiment Indiana Volunteers.
In the report of the committee in the Senate to whom this bill was
referred it is stated that the deceased soldier was the first colonel of
the regiment named; that he resigned from the Army, and was by order of
the governor of Indiana put in charge of the United States camps at
Indianapolis. A military order is made part of the report, announcing
that the funeral of Lieutenant-Colonel Richard O'Neal will take place
January 6, 1863, and reciting the fact that the deceased had charge of
the camps near Indianapolis for the preceding four months.
It is distinctly alleged in the report that the beneficiary did not
apply to the Pension Bureau for relief because the disease of which her
husband died was incurred after his resignation.
The records of the War Department fail to show that there was a colonel
of the Twenty-sixth Indiana Regiment named Richard O'Neal, but it does
appear that Richard Neal was lieutenant-colonel of said regiment; that
he was mustered in August 31, 1861, and resigned June 30, 1862.
If this is the officer whose widow is named in the bill, the proposition
is to pension a widow of a soldier who, after ten months' service,
resigned, and who seven months after his resignation died of disease
which was in no manner related to his military service.
There is besides such a discrepancy between the name given in the bill
and the name of the officer who served as lieutenant-colonel in the
regiment mentioned that if the merits were with the widow the bill would
need further Congressional consideration.