which provide "that if any commissioned officer in the military peace establishment of the United States shall, while in the service of the United States, die, by reason of any wound received in active service of the United States, and leave a widow, or, if no widow, a child or children under sixteen years of age, such widow, or, if no widow, such child or children, shall be entitled to, and receive, half the monthly pay to which the deceased was entitled at the time of his death, for and during the term of five years." She submitted her claim to the War Department in 1836, upon which the Attorney General of the United States, then Secretary of War ad interim, endorsed the following opinion:

"There can be no doubt of Mrs. Brown's being entitled to a pension, under the act of 1802 within quoted, provided she can show, to the satisfaction of the proper officer, that her husband died by reason of the wound received on the Niagara in 1814. The fact that he lingered till 1828 cannot deprive her of the pension, provided she can satisfactorily trace his death to that cause."

The claim was not allowed, as not coming within the rules which govern the department under the acts referred to, as appears from a letter of Mr. Hagner, in which he also refers to the case of the widow of the late Captain Schmuk, as being analogous to this, and which was provided for by a special act of Congress, passed 28th June, 1836.

The petitioner further represents, that the late war found her husband in active business pursuits, and independent in his circumstances; and that, abandoning his private business, and devoting himself to the service of his country, his pecuniary affairs became involved in irretrievable ruin; and that, "after years of suffering, the direct consequence of desperate wounds received while leading the army under his command to victory, he died, at a period scarcely beyond the meridian of manhood," covered with glory, honored and beloved, but leaving his numerous family without the means of support, from which destitute situation they were only for a time relieved by a prompt and beneficent act of legislation. Therefore, believing that her husband lost a property ample for the support of his family, and sacrificed his life in the service of his country, she prays Congress to pass an act granting her the half-pay, for five years, to which, under the existing laws, she believes she is justly entitled.

The evidence in support of the claim is herewith submitted.

The committee, in considering this case, have put much confidence in the testimony of Doctor Trowbridge, whose opportunities for an intimate acquaintance with the illness of General Brown, the successive train of symptoms attending it, and its causes, and whose reputation for science, skill in his profession, and great experience, entitles his opinion to the highest respect. After a description of the wound, and detailing the progress of consequent disease, so far as had come under his observation, he says: "I have no doubt but the disease was occasioned by the original wound received at Bridgewater, aggravated and rendered more severe by too early moving and exposure, and confirmed by his travelling from Buffalo to Sackett's Harbor in the month of November, 1814, during an unusual severity of weather."

The opinion of Dr. Lawson, the present surgeon general of the United States army, is no less entitled to weight, and is equally deci

ded and direct to the main question before the committee. It is also alleged that the general order announcing the death of General Brown to the army of the United States attributed the event to the wound and hardships of his campaigns on the Canada frontier, as the original cause; and that this statement was founded on the well-known opinion of the late Doctor Lovell, then surgeon general of the army of the United States. The opinion of the medical gentlemen referred to is corroborated by the statements of John A. Dix and Edmund Kirby, who for many years were members of the military family of the general, and the letter of the honorable John McLean, whose intimacy with General Brown, for several years previous to his death, gave him a favorable opportunity of becoming acquainted with the nature of his disease, and the origin to which it was attributed.

The committee, aware of the difficulty of forming a positive opinion of the extent of the agency of the wound in producing the death of General Brown, from the length of the intervening period between the alleged cause and the final effect, have given the subject their most careful and deliberate consideration, and have come to the conclusion that the testimony in the case will fully sustain them in the opinion that the successive stages of disease which terminated his life may fairly be traced to the wound received at the battle of Niagara, as the primary cause; and that the petitioner is entitled to the relief provided by law for the widow of such officer as shall" die by reason of any wound received in actual service of the United States ;" and therefore report a bill.

No. 1.

I, Amasa Trowbridge, of Watertown, in the county of Jefferson, and State of New York, late surgeon of the United States army, depose and say:

That I was well acquainted with the late Major General Jacob Brown, of the United States army.

That I was present at the battle at Bridgewater, in Upper Canada, on the night of the 25th of July, 1814. That I dressed the wounds which said Brown received, the same night, at the same engagement, while directing the movements of the American army, then engaged with the enemy.

The principal wound which the General received was made by a musket ball passing obliquely through the upper portion of the right thigh, lacerating the external integuments, wounding the triceps femoris muscle, glands, and the great tendinous fascia of the thigh.

That I visited and dressed the wounds of the said Brown, while on the south side of Buffalo bay, opposite to Fort Erie, several days after the said engagement at Bridgewater, where he took lodgings for a few weeks.

Some time in September following, I attended said Brown on board of an armed schooner belonging to the United States navy, on Lake Erie, lying near Fort Erie, to which place he was carried, better to direct the movements at said fort.

In consequence of moving, and his confined state in this vessel, inflammation extended upon the tendinous fascia of the wounded thigh quite to its various attachments, the capsular ligaments of the femur and trocanter, and crest of the ilium, and the various muscles of the thigh. He was at this time attended with much fever, pain and feebleness. A few weeks after this, he left the vessel and took a marquee near the fort. Here he soon recovered so as to walk and mount his horse, and directed the movements of the troops at the sortie, and afterwards, in descending the Niagara river with General Izard; but much feebleness, occasioned by local irritation about the parts originally wounded, yet remained, attended with a derangement of the digestive

organs.

In the months of February and March following, I visited him frequently at Sackett's Harbor, and prescribed for him. He was at this time laboring under neuralgic complaints in the muscular system, morbid state of the stomach and bowels, and general debility. I occasionally saw him from this time till the spring of 1821, and consulted with other physicians in his case. In October of this year I attended him when prostrated by an apopletic stroke, which nearly destroyed life; and occasionally saw him till the spring following, when he had partially recovered. I visited him again in 1827, in this county, while on a tour from Washington to the north. I found him then laboring under a train of symptoms similar to those that attended him in 1821.

I have no doubt but this disease was occasioned by the original wound received at Bridgewater, aggravated and rendered more severe by too early moving and exposures, and confirmed by his travelling from Buffalo to Sackett's Harbor in the month of November, 1814, during an unusual severity of weather.

AMASA TROWBRIDGE, M. D.,
Late Surgeon United States Army.

Sworn before me, March 5, 1833.

WOOSTER SHERMAN,
Commissioner, &c.,

STATE OF NEW YORK, Jefferson county, Clerk's office,

SS.

I, Peleg Burchard, clerk of said county, do certify that Wooster Sherman, esq., before whom the within affidavit purports to have been sworn, was, on the date of the same, a commissioner &c., in and for said county, commissioned and sworn, and duly authorized to take the And, further, that I am well acquainted with his handwriting, and verily believe his signature to the said affidavit is genuine. In testimony whereof, I have hereto set my hand, and affixed the seal of said county, this 5th of March, 1833.

same.

No. 2.

P. BURCHARD, Clerk.

I have no hesitation in expressing the opinion that the paralysis, and the chain of diseases that followed, and which prostrated the energies

both of the mind and body of the late Major General J. Brown, may be fairly traced to the wound, as their source, which he received at the battle of Niagara, in 1814.

TH. LAWSON,

Surgeon General United States Army.

No. 3.

WASHINGTON, January, 1838.

I, the undersigned, Edmund Kirby, do hereby certify that I joined the military family of the late Major General Jacob Brown, in the capacity of aid-de-camp, in March 1819, and continued a member of his personal staff till August, 1824; and that subsequently, till his death, in February, 1828, I was in the habit of frequent intercourse with him. That, from a period shortly after I joined him, in 1819, till his death, I have reason to believe that I enjoyed his unreserved confidence. That, from 1819 to about September, 1821, I frequently heard him declare that, though apparently in the enjoyment of tolerably good health, he was in fact constantly suffering from a painful and troublesome disease, consequent upon his wounds received at Niagara the 25th July, 1814, aggravated and confirmed by premature exposure at the siege of Fort Erie, in September, 1814, before they had healed; and that he was constantly under medical treatment.

On the evening of the 16th October, 1821, the general said to me that he had not felt so well for seven years; that he had just got rid of the bowel complaint that had troubled him ever since the siege of Fort Erie. The next morning he received a severe paralytic shock, with which disease he struggled till the 24th February, 1828, when he died. It was the declared opinion of his attending physicians, and his own often-repeated conviction, that the derangement of his bowels was caused by his wounds and exposure in camp before they were healed, and that the sudden cessation of this established drain upon his system in 1821, predisposed him to, and brought on, the paralysis which immediately ensued, and under which he ultimately (in 1828) sunk into his

grave.

I have had frequent and full conversations with the general and with his physicians on this subject, and it is my unhesitating conviction that his days were abridged by, and that his death may be distinctly traced for its cause, through the various stages of disease, to, the wounds received at Niagara in 1814.

WASHINGTON CITY:

E. KIRBY.

Personally appeared before the undersigned, a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Major E. Kirby, who, being duly sworn, states that the statements above are true. In witness whereof, I have hereto set my hand, this 4th January, 1837.

JOHN MCLEAN.

No. 4.

ALBANY, November 24, 1837. MY DEAR SIR: I have received your favor of the 21st instant, and sincerely hope that Mrs. Brown's application for a pension may be successful.

My recollections of the malady with which Major General Brown was afflicted, after the war of 1812, are very distinct. I was, from March, 1819, to March, 1825, a member of his military family. Until the year 1821, he was constantly afflicted with a bowel complaint, which he contracted, as I understood, during the seige of Fort Erie, in the year 1814, in consequence of his exposures and his return to active service before the wounds he received at Bridgewater were healed. I never had any doubt that this disease, and the series of paralytic attacks which succeeded it, and which terminated his life in 1828, were the result of his wounds and premature exposure before they were cured. The derangement of his health for so long a time was a frequent subject of conversation. It was uniformly ascribed by him to the cause referred to, and, so far as my recollection extends, this was also the unvarying opinion of his medical advisers.

I am, dear sir, truly yours,

Major EDMUND KIRBY,

United States Army.

JOHN A. DIX.

No. 5.

JANUARY 5, 1838.

For several years previous to his death, I was very intimately acquainted with General Brown. Our intercourse was almost daily, and of the most friendly and confidential character. Neither of us felt any reserve, but expressed our opinions and feelings fully to each other; and, from what I have observed and heard him say, I can entertain no doubt that the wound he received in the public service was the cause of his premature dissolution. His subsequent exposure and active operations in the field may have aggravated his wound, and given it a fatal tendency; but that his death was eventually produced by the wound I have never doubted.

The Secretary of War, by direction of the President of the United States, announces to the army the painful intelligence of the decease [the 24th of February] of Major General Brown.