GROVER CLEVELAND.

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.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, August 10, 1888.

To the House of Representatives: 

I return without approval House bill No. 9183, entitled “An act granting a pension to William P. Riddle.”

The records of the War Department show that the beneficiary named in this bill was enrolled October 4, 1861, in the Fifth Kentucky Regiment of Cavalry, and was mustered into the service on the 31st day of March, 1862.

From that time to April 30, 1862, he is reported absent sick.  On the rolls for four months thereafter, ending August 31, 1862, he is reported as absent and deserted.  His name is not borne on any subsequent rolls.

He did not file an application for pension until April, 1879, when the act granting arrears was in force.  He then claimed that he contracted pneumonia February 15, 1862; that about a month after he was sent home, and was under medical treatment for two years; that he returned about May 1, 1864, and was discharged about May 15, 1864, but that his discharge papers were lost.

Though he has furnished some evidence in support of the claim that he was sick at about the time alleged and that he returned to the Army after an absence of two years, no record proof of any kind is furnished of an honorable discharge at any time.