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Show MILITARY BOUNTY LAND POLICIES 251 to the men in accordance with rank and achievement. Next, by the Proclamation of 1763 the British Government ordered Virginia and other Royal Colonies to grant land "to such reduced officers as have served in North America during the late war, and to such private soldiers who have been or shall be disbanded in America; and are actually residing there" as follows: field officers, 5,000 acres; captains, 3,000 acres; staff officers, 2,000 acres; noncommissioned officers, 200 acres; and privates, 50 acres. The grants were to be free of quitrents for 10 years but were subject to the usual requirements concerning improvement and cultivation.3 Revolutionary Bounties During the Revolution the United States and the individual states relied heavily on land bounties to attract enlistments. Although the Continental Congress had no lands subject to its jurisdiction until the cession of 1784, it nevertheless began at once to make promises of land. In 1776 it offered 50 acres to every Hessian who would desert to the American side. This may have been in retaliation for the earlier British offer of 200 acres, plus 50 for each member of the family, of those who would engage in the war on the side of the Crown. Later when Henry Hamilton, in charge of British forces in the West, offered a 200-acre bounty to each American soldier who would desegt to fight with the British, Congress offered British deserters rations for 6 weeks, some livestock, and a bounty of 50 to 800 acres depending on rank. The first general land bounty act, adopted by Congress on September 16,1776, offered privates and noncommissioned officers in the Continental Army 100 acres; lieutenants, 200 acres; captains, 300 acres; majors, 400 acres; lieutenant colonels, 450 acres; and colonels, 500 acres. In 1780 brigadiers were granted 850 acres and major generals 1,100 acres. In the absence of any lands over which 3 William W. Hening, Statutes at Large of Virginia, VII, 622, 666. Congress had authority it was assumed that the states would provide the lands thus promised. But what were landless states like Maryland to do?4 Fearing it might have to buy land to meet the bounty obligation to its men in the Continental Army, Maryland at this time moved to have the landed states cede all their claims to the National government,5 a move that led to the creation of the public domain. Virginia, the most populous of all the Colonies and the state with the largest extent of public lands-including present West Virginia, Kentucky, and the five states of the Old Northwest-was extraordinarily generous in granting land bounties to its troops in the Continental Army and to its state troops. It began modestly by offering to give every soldier, sailor or marine in state regiments 100 acres and to every officer the same bounties that were given to Virginians in the Continental Army.6 The same year chaplains, surgeons, and surgeon's mates of Virginia regiments were allowed the same land bounties given to commissioned officers receiving the same pay. In 1779, the land bounty to officers was substantially increased and that to the men somewhat enlarged. Colonels were granted 5,000 acres; noncommissioned officers, 400; and soldiers and sailors who enlisted for the duration of the war, 200. As enlistments became increasingly difficult to procure because the supply of men was nearly exhausted, the bounty to soldiers and sailors who served to the conclusion of the war was raised to 300 acres and in addition each was promised "a healthy sound negro between the ages of ten and thirty years, or sixty pounds in gold or silver."7 In 1780 major generals and brigadier gen- 4 Ibid., IX, 179; William T. Hutchinson, "The Bounty Lands of the American Revolution" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1927), pp. 7ff. 5 Hutchinson, "The Bounty Lands," pp. 7, 9, 17ff. 6 Hening, X, 24, 26. Soldiers who were with George Rogers Clark in his campaign in the Illinois country were to have bounties of 200 acres. 7 Hening, X, 160, 331. |