Special Discharge for Illegal Enlistment

By Tom Dunne · Originally published June 2016 · p. 18

Cpl. Samuel Blundin, USMC, enlisted in Philadelphia on August 23, 1862 and was discharged August 9, 1864. Colonel Commandant John Harris pointed out that enlistments, while strong during the summer, had fallen off sharply during the fall of 1861. An examination of the recruiting statistics for 1861 indicates that when enlistments for the three months’ volunteer organizations ended and recruiting began for three-year regiments, the number of men joining the Marine Corps fell sharply. The primary cause of this was the bounties paid by the several states, something not allowed to those enlisting in the Navy or Marine Corps. Harris received numerous inquiries from private individuals who were interested in providing numbers of men to the military service based upon the most advantageous circumstances, namely enlistment bounties. He had to turn them away with the response “Soldiers of the Regular Army and Marine Corps are not entitled to the $100.00 bounty as it is given only to volunteers.” Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and the Congress felt the potential of prize money awards, a share of the proceeds (or assigned value) from captured goods, merchant shipping, or warships sunk or taken in battle, was sufficient inducement for enlistment in the naval service. The enlistments for the month of May dropped even further, but Harris found reason for optimism in early June when a letter came from the War Department. In response to his query regarding enlistment bounties for recruits in the Regular Army, Harris was told that General Orders No. 39 allowed Army recruiters to enlist men with the promise of a $100.00 bounty to be paid upon completion of their service. The bounty would include all those who had enlisted since July 1, 1861. In the past, all orders relative to recruiting in the Regular Army had applied to the Marine Corps. Harris applied the same construction to General Orders No. 39. Accordingly, Harris told all post commanders they were authorized to offer the $100.00 bounty in the same manner as recruiters for the Regular Army. After receiving his instructions and a copy of General Orders No. 39, Lt. Col. Ward Marston, commanding Marine Barracks, Portsmouth, requested clarification. Marston was not comfortable with the verbiage of the General Order. Harris’ reply set the groundwork for a Pandora’s Box of trouble that would bring serious embarrassment to the Marine Corps and the Navy Department two years later: “All recruits enlisted in the Marine Corps since the 1st July 1861, are entitled to a bounty of $100.00 on their obtaining an honorable discharge. The bill is before Congress to give in addition to the above, a bounty of a month’s pay and a $2.00 to any person who will furnish a recruit. The latter has not passed, but it probably will in a few days. I enclose a copy of the bill allowing a bounty, which

Samuel Blundin’s Special Discharge dated August 25, 1862. is not very definite, but I have given it the proper construction.” The Curse of Bounty 1864 The first problem Col. Commandant Jacob Zeilin faced after assuming his duties as Commandant of the Marine Corps was the “unauthorized” bounty promised to Marine recruits between June 1862 and July 1863. Death relieved Col. John Harris of the burden to find a solution to the problem created by the July 10, 1863 decision of John M. Brodhead, Second Comptroller of the Treasury Department. Brodhead ruled that those entering the Marine Corps after the passage of the Act of July 29, 1861, were not eligible for the $100.00 bounty the law authorized for Regular Army enlistments. Marine Corps recruiting officers were informed to make no further mention of the Federal Government bounty, and as far as the Marines who were affected by the decision, Harris had taken no action in the matter. Nevertheless, it was certain that the news regarding Brodhead’s decision would spread. It would appear to those affected by the ruling that either a deceptive practice had been worked by the Corps, or a breach of faith had occurred. Surprisingly, the first letters from Marines who thought their enlistments invalid because of the bounty promise did not begin to arrive at Headquarters, Marine Corps until June 1864. Affected Marines sent flurries of letters to Washington stating that lawyers advised them that their enlistments were null and void due to the false pretenses under which they were recruited. They petitioned the Commandant to grant them discharges. On August 6, 1864 the Navy Department reaffirmed its decision by announcing the following: Navy Department Washington, August 6, 1864 Sir, Persons who may have enlisted in the Marine Corps under any order inadvertently issued or approved by the late Colonel, Commandant, offering a bounty not authorized by law, should be discharged upon their application, if it appears upon due inquiry that they enlisted under the unauthorized offer.

Such applications, made to the Department, will hereafter be referred to you to be disposed of. I am, resp’y Your obt.svt. Gideon Welles Secretary of the Navy Col. Jacob Zeilin Com’t. U.S. Marine Corps Washington, D.C. A total of 246 Marines who had enlisted during the period June 7, 1862 and July 10, 1863, were discharged from the Corps. Thus, Cpl. Blundin’s “Special” Discharge for having been illegally enlisted. Colonel Zeilin, 7th Commandant of the Marine Corps, was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on 2 March 1867. He was the first Marine to achieve that rank. In 1868, he approved the design of the “Eagle, Globe, and Anchor’’ Marine Corps emblem. Cpl. Blundin is described as 5’8 3/4” in height, weighing 155 lbs., blue eyes, brown hair, fresh complexion and by trade and occupation a blacksmith. Buried Beechwood Cemetery, Hulmeville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His Corps record is as follows: 1. August 25, 1862 - Transferred to Washington, D.C. Barracks 2. July 27, 1863 - Transferred to Brooklyn, N.Y. Barracks 3. August 1, 1863 - Transferred to Marine Battalion, Morris Island, Pensacola, FL. and station ship U.S.F. Potomac. Marine contingent aboard ship was Col. William L. Shuttleworth, Commanding; Captain William H. Carter; 6 sergeants, 5 corporals, 2 musicians and 122 privates. The frigate Potomac: 1726 tons; 177’10” x 46’ 2” x 20’ 6”; armaments: ten (10) 8” guns and forty (40) 32-pounders. Launched 1822, completed 1831 and sold 1877. 4. December 7, 1863 - Transferred to Washington, D.C. Barracks 5. March 30, 1864 – Transferred to Navy Yard, D.C. Barracks 6. August 10, 1864 – Discharged at Navy Yard, D.C. By order of the Secretary of the Navy, having been illegally enlisted, under promise of bounty by the Recruiting Officer, which there was no appropriation by Congress to pay.