EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 10, 1888_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I return without approval House bill No. 9344, entitled "An act granting
a pension to James C. White."
The records of the War Department show that this beneficiary enlisted in
a Kentucky regiment September 29, 1861. On the muster roll of April 30,
1862, he is reported as absent. On the roll of August 31, 1863, he is
mentioned as having deserted July 19, 1862. His name is not borne on
subsequent muster rolls until it appears upon those of January and
February, 1864, with the remark that he returned February, 1864, and
that all pay and allowances were to be stopped from July 19, 1862, to
February 5, 1864. It appears that he deserted again on the 18th of
December, 1864, and that his name was not borne upon any subsequent
rolls.
Naturally enough, there does not appear to be any record of this
soldier's honorable discharge.
It seems that this man during the time that he professed to be in the
service earned two records of desertion, the first extending over a
period of nearly a year and a half and the other terminating his
military service.
He filed a claim for pension on the 4th day of August, 1883, alleging
that he contracted piles in December, 1861, and a hernia in April, 1862.
A medical examination in 1883 revealed the nonexistence of piles and the
presence of hernia.
The fact of the incurrence of any disability at all in the service is
not satisfactorily established, and the entire case in all its phases
appears to be devoid of merit.