military or naval force of the United States, or where persons otherwise volunteered and rendered service in any engagement with rebels or Indians since the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, shall, if they have been disabled in consequence of wounds received in battle in such temporary service, be entitled to the same benefits of the pension laws as those who have been regularly mustered into the United States service; and the widows or other dependents of any such persons as may have been killed in the temporary service aforesaid shall be entitled to persions in the same manner as they would have been had such persons been regularly mustered: Provided, that no claim under this section shall be valid unless presented and prosecuted to a successful issue within three years from and after the passage of this act. All such claims shall be adjudicated under such special rules and regulations as the Commissioner of Pensions may prescribe most effectually to guard against frauds.

SEC. 10. And be if further enacted, That if any person entitled to an invalid pension under the provisions of the act granting pensions, approved July fourteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty- two, has died or shall hereafter die while an application for such pensions is pending, and having a widow or dependent relative entitled to receive a pension by reason of his service and death, as provided in said act, then the pension to such widow or other person shall commence from the date at which the decedent's invalid pension would have commenced had he survived, subject to the conditions of this act and the act and the act to which this is amendatory.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That all enlisted soldiers in the Army who shall have become disabled in the service, whether they shall have been regularly mustered in or not, shall be entitled to the same benefits of the pension laws as those who have been regularly mustered into the United States service; and the widows or other dependents entitled to pension by law, as prescribed by the act of July fourteen, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, of any such soldier who may have been killed, or shall have died, or shall hereafter die, by reason of any wound received or disease contracted while in said service and in the line of duty, shall be entitled to the same pension as though such soldier had been regularly mustered into the service.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the fees of agents and attorneys for making out and causing to be executed the papers necessary to establish a claim for a pension bounty, and other allowance before the Pension Office, under this act, shall not exceed the following rates: For making out and causing to be duly executed a declaration by the applicant, with the necessary affidavits, and forwarding the same to the Pension Office, with the requisite correspondence, ten dollars; which sum shall be received by such agent or attorney in full for all services in obtaining such pension, and shall not be demanded or received in whole or in part until such pension shall be obtained; and the sixth and seventh sections of an act entitled "An act to grant pensions," approved July [fourteenth], eighteen hundred and sixty-two, are hereby repealed.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That any agent or attorney who shall, directly or indirectly, demand or receive any greater compensation for his services under this act than is prescribed in the preceding section of this act, or who shall contract or agree to prosecute any claim for a pension, bounty, or other allowance under this act, on the condition that he shall receive a per centrum upon any portion of the amount of such claim, or who shall wrongfully withhold from a pensioner or other claimant the whole or any part of the pension or claim allowed and due to such pensioner or claimant, shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall, for every such offense, be fined not exceeding three hundred dollars, or imprisoned at hard labor not exceeding two years, or both, according to the circumstances and aggravations of the offense.

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That the widows and children of colored soldiers who have been, or who may be hereafter, killed, or who have died or may hereafter die of wounds received in battle, or who have died or may hereafter die of disease contracted in the military service of the United States, and in the line of duty, shall be entitled to receive the pensions now provided by law, without other proof of marriage than that the parties had habitually recognized each other as man and wife, and lived together as such for a definite period next preceding the soldier's enlistment, not less than two years, to be shown by the affidavits of credible witnesses: Provided, however, That such widow and children are free persons: Provided further, That is such parties resided in any State in which their marriage may have been legally solemnized, the usual evidence shall be required.

SEC. 15. And be if further enacted, That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

Approved July 4, 1864.