The Volunteers Were Paid Twice—Sometimes Thrice—For the Same War

The first of the troops were mustered in on the 17th of October, 1856, only three days before a commission commenced its examination of the claims styled by the act of Congress of the 18th of the preceding August, growing out of the late Indian war.

None of the companies of this regiment were appointed, or entered upon their duties, until the latter part of January, 1856, when two of them were mustered into service; five were mustered in February, when seventeen companies of the regiment had been received; two in April; and several on the 6th of June, 1856. The regiment consisted of nine mounted companies.

Among those who claimed pay was the keeper of a ferry on the Nisqually River, between Olympia and Steilacoom, who, by order of Gov. Stevens, with his ferrymen—ten in number—was enrolled into a company, with Packwood bearing the rank of sergeant, and mustered in during January and February, 1856. The whole of the men were discharged for disobedience of orders, one for disability, and the rest for inability to be mustered in. Yet the whole of them were reported for pay by the commissioners. The ferry keeper went out of service on the 3d of April, 1856.

A second company of the same description, mustered by order of Gov. Stevens in March, under command of John A. Packwood, with Myers for corporal, made similar claims. Several of the men were discharged on the 18th of July, with pay to the amount of $22 each due the men, and $23 due the officers. These men, under Packwood, in addition to the pay above, made out further claims against the government, with nothing to show whether they were in the service at the time or not—charging for transportation to various districts, and to a heavy amount.

The company of Capt. Oliver Shead, 48 strong, in service from February 22 to July 17, 1856, called a 'volunteer company,' ordered into service by Gov. Stevens, was a foot company—the captain and first lieutenant only being mounted—and the accounts to the amount of pay reported to be due them led to an examination, which disclosed the singular fact that 43 members were at the same time reported as wagon-masters and teamsters at four, six, and ten dollars per day, amounting in the aggregate, besides the above amount reported for their pay, to a large sum. Capt. Shead himself is reported for pay in three different capacities at the same time: as captain of this company; as wagon-master for 101 days, $674.45; and as chief wagon-master and teamster, in all a heavy sum for a like period.

One private, Andrew J., is reported for pay in three capacities: as private of the company, 146 days; as blacksmith, at a fixed rate per day, $690; and as wagon-master at $10 per day, $270—in all, a large sum for no service beyond that of a private of the company. There are thus employed and reported as double and triple claims the men—one lieutenant, one surgeon, three corporals, and twenty-seven privates.

It is not doubted that a rigid investigation would show other instances of double and triple payments to the same individuals in different capacities and reported for pay in each of them.