The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers was established on March 3, 1865, to provide care for volunteer soldiers who had been disabled through loss of limb, wounds, disease, or injury during service in the Union forces in the Civil War.

"Asylum" had a neutral meaning in the 19th century

The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers was called the National Asylum from the original legislation in 1865 until Congress changed the name in 1873. The term “asylum” was used in the nineteenth century for institutions caring for dependent members of society, such as the insane and the poor, who suffered from temporary conditions that hopefully could be cured or corrected (1). The use of the term indicates that the original planners had anticipated a temporary use of the institution by the veterans.

The original intention of the Asylum was to care for veterans until they were restored to health, or retrained for new occupations if unable physically to return to their pre-war jobs. The goal of the Asylum was the return of the disabled veteran to civilian life; once all the veterans had been served, the Asylum would cease to exist.

The first veterans benefits

From the Revolutionary War through the Civil War, the small number of veterans of American wars had three sources of assistance from the Federal government. The vast amounts of land under the control of the government were offered to veterans as land grants for their support after service.

The land grant system also benefited the government in encouraging veterans and their families to settle in undeveloped territories of the new nation. In 1833, the Federal government established the Bureau of Pensions, which made small cash payments to veterans; the low numbers of the veteran population and the more attractive offer of free land kept the pension system relatively small until after the Civil War.

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