The troops taken off by the "Kilby" and "Three Bells" are at Bedloe's Island.
I am, Colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
William Gates,
Colonel commanding.
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.
Acts of Congress Voting Eight Months' Pay to Lieutenant Francis Key Murray and others.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: That there shall be paid, under the direction of the President, to each of the officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians and privates, who, on the twenty-first day of December, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, embarked at New York, under orders to California, on the steamship San Francisco, and who was on board the vessel on the occasion of her recent disaster at sea, and to Lieutenant Francis Key Murray, and any other officer or seaman of the United States Navy, who was on board the said steamship, under orders, a sum equal in amount to his pay and allowance for eight months.
Section 2. And be it further enacted, That if any such officer, non-commissioned officer, musician or private, shall have died before receiving such payment, from any cause consequent upon said disaster, his widow, if one survive him, and if not, then his minor children, if any there be, shall be paid a sum equal in amount to six months' pay, and allowances of the deceased; and that the widows and minor children of those officers, non-commissioned officers and privates, who perished by this disaster, or who died from disease in consequence thereof, shall be allowed pensions in the same manner in all respects as if the said officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates had been killed in battle.
Approved March 27th, 1854.
Section 3. And be it further enacted, That the amount which it may be found necessary to pay under the act of twenty-seventh March, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, to the widows and orphans of United States troops, who perished by the recent disaster to the steamship San Francisco, be paid out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.