Discharges.... Honorable Discharges.

which the Commanding Officer will be the judge.

The latter will never authorize such discharges for the purpose of avoiding a courtmartial, nor unless he is satisfied that the public interests will not be injured thereby. Hospital and Paymasters' Stewards and Nurses are never to be discharged without the consent of the officers appointing them or their successors, except by sentence of a court-martial.

777....A Yeoman shall in no case be discharged during the continuance of the cruise for which he engaged to serve, until his accounts shall have been examined and the stores under his charge found correct.

778.... A Yeoman is not to be discharged at the expiration of a cruise until his accounts have been audited and approved by the Commandant of the yard, as required by the Ordnance and other instructions. If found correct, the Commandant of the yard will then give him a discharge; but if not so found, that officer is at once to make to the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting, or to the Bureau of Ordnance, as the case may require, a statement of deficiencies, covering their amounts, and of any circumstances which may have come to his knowledge attending them, for the decision of the Department.

SECTION 3.

Honorable Discharges.

779....Commanding Officers, upon returning from a cruise, when directed to discharge the whole or any part of the crew, will furnish to those petty officers and others of inferior rating, who enlisted for three years, and who, in their judgment, are, on being discharged, entitled to it as a testimonial of fidelity and obedience, an honorable discharge, and forward immediately to the Secretary of the Navy returns of the names and descriptions of those to whom it has been given.

780....Blanks for the honorable discharges, and the returns in relation to them, will be furnished by the Department, and great care is hereby enjoined as to the filling up of both completely and accurately.

781.... When any petty officer or person of inferior rating, who, having received an honorable discharge, shall within three months from the date thereof present said discharge at any naval rendezvous, or account for its loss in a satisfactory manner, answer the description it contains,

Honorable Discharges.

and be found physically fit for the service, he may be re-enlisted for three years; and upon his transfer to a receiving vessel, he will be entitled to three months' gratuitous pay, equal in amount to what he would have been entitled to receive if he had remained employed in actual service for three months, with the rate specified on the face of the honorable discharge.

782.... If the honorable discharge should have been lost, reference can be made to the files of the Department for corroboration that the person presenting himself did receive an honorable discharge, and for a descriptive list of his person.

783.

The three months' pay, to which a petty officer or person of inferior rating is entitled who shall enlist for three years within three months after his honorable discharge, shall be considered "honorable discharge money," and so denominated. It will not, however, be paid in one sum at the time of re-enlistment, but shall be reserved for payment during the term of his re-enlistment, at such times, and in such sums, as the Commanding Officer may direct.

784.... No person discharged at his own request, or for his own convenience, before the expiration of his term of enlistment, shall be given an honorable discharge.

785....Every petty officer or person of inferior rating who shall receive an honorable discharge" will wear upon the left sleeve of the jacket or frock, above the elbow, a foul anchor, two and a half inches in length, to be white if worn on blue, or blue if worn on white, to be called "the honorable discharge badge ;" and for every additional honorable discharge a star half an inch in diameter will be added to the badge.

786....When invalids are sent to the United States from a foreign station, the Commanding Officer of the vessel to which they belonged will transmit a list of their names to the Department, stating the general character of each, and designating such as, in his opinion, are entitled to the honorable discharge, in order that the Commandant of the station at which they may arrive in the United States may be directed to grant the said discharge to those deserving it. A duplicate of the list is to be sent also to the Commandant of the station where they are to arrive.

Desertions.

SECTION IV.

Desertions.

787....Desertion being an offence of the gravest character, every possible endeavor must be made by the officers of the Navy to check it, as well as absence without leave, or straggling, and to apprehend promptly all persons who may desert or so absent themselves. In each case descriptive lists, signed by the commanding officer, showing on their face the amount of reward offered, are to be distributed among the police of the place, but not without the permission of the local authorities. (Form No. 4.)

788....A reward not exceeding twenty dollars may be offered for the recovery of a deserter, and a reward not exceeding ten dollars may be offered for the recovery of a straggler, but in neither case is it to be paid until the delinquent is actually delivered on board the vessel, or at the place on shore where he belongs, and from which he deserted or went without authority. If, however, the vessel should have departed from the port at which the offence occurred, then the delivery of the delinquent to the Commanding naval officer thereat is to be regarded as equivalent to his delivery on board of her. Any reward which may be paid for the apprehension and delivery of a deserter or straggler is at once to be charged to his account.

789.

In addition to the reward above authorized to be paid for the apprehension and delivery of deserters and stragglers, there may be paid a reasonable amount to cover such expenses attending their lodgment, subsistence, and travelling as may appear to have been fairly incurred; and this amount, entered separately, is also to be charged against them. No claim, however, for loss of time, or for subsistence, that may be made by any person apprehending and delivering a deserter or straggler, is to be entertained.

790....A reward for the apprehension of an officer is not to be offered unless specially authorized by the Navy Department, or, on a foreign station, by the Commander-in-Chief of a squadron.

791... Absence without leave, and with a manifest intention not to return, is always to be regarded as desertion. Absence without leave,

Desertions.

coupled with a probability that the party does not intend to remain permanently away, is, at first, to be regarded as straggling, and, at the expiration of ten days, if the party still remains absent, as desertion. In either case the Commanding Officer, on informing himself of the facts attending it, is, primarily, to decide the point of intention, and to cause the party to be entered on the log and marked on the books of the Paymaster as above indicated.

792.... The wages due a deserter are to be regarded as forfeited to the United States; or, if in debt to the government, the proceeds of his effects left on board are to be applied to liquidate it, and the balance, if any, is to be accounted for to the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury by the Paymaster. If not so in debt, the whole of said proceeds are to be so accounted for.

793.... The letter R, marked against a person's name on the books of the Paymaster, is to signify desertion, and no application to the Department for its removal will be entertained unless the Department is furnished with sufficient evidence, either direct or circumstantial, that, in reality, there was no intention to desert.

794.. If the account of any person returning or delivered on board with an R already appearing against his name has not actually been transmitted to the Fourth Auditor, the Commander of a squadron, or of a vessel acting singly, may have it removed if he is satisfied upon explanation that it ought not in justice to remain, in which case the party is to be re-credited with the wages that were due him when the R was placed against his name, and credited with the proceeds that may have resulted from the sale of his effects left on board, or, if he was in debt, with any balance of them that may appear in his favor; but under no circumstances is any allowance of wages to be made to him for the time of his unauthorized absence.

795...Should desertions occur from a vessel in a port of the United States, her commanding officer, before sailing, is to transmit to the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting a list and description of the deserters, and a duplicate of the same, with a statement of the reward offered in each case, to the Commanding Officer of the station, if there be one at the place, and if not, to the commanding officer of the station nearest to it, in order that he may receive such deserters if apprehended and have the reward offered for them paid.

Desertions... Medals of Honor.

796....If a deserter from any vessel of the navy shall take refuge on board of a foreign vessel-of-war, the senior officer present in command shall make a formal request for his delivery; but if this be refused, he is not to resort to force for his recovery, yet he is, however, to report the case and circumstances immediately to the Navy Department.

797...In case of shipwreck, or any other circumstance except capture by an enemy, whereby any person belonging to a vessel of the Navy shall become unavoidably separated from the command, it shall be his duty to proceed at once to the nearest ship, squadron, or station, and report himself to the officer in command. In the event of failure to do this, he will be regarded as a deserter, and no claim for wages will be allowed unless he shall prove, to the satisfaction of the Department, that he was prevented by circumstances beyond his control.

ARTICLE XIX.

Medals of Honor.

798....By an act of Congress, approved December 21, 1861, the Secretary of the Navy is authorized to cause two hundred "Medals of Honor" to be prepared, with suitable emblematic devices, to be bestowed upon such petty officers, others of inferior rating, and marines, as shall most distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action and other commendable qualities during the present war. Medals have accordingly been prepared, and each consists of a star of five rays, in bronze, with a device emblematic of the Union crushing the monster Rebellionthe star itself sustained, as a means of wearing it as intended, by the flukes of an anchor. The following rules are to be observed concerning it :

1. It is to be worn suspended from the left breast by a ribbon of the same pattern as that which will be found attached on its presentation, showing all blue at top for half an inch downwards, and thirteen vertical stripes, alternately red and white, for eight-tenths of an inch, or the rest of its length to the ring of the anchor.