National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers

At the VA Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio, Miller Cottage stands as a mostly forgotten reminder of women’s fight for inclusion in the benefits and health care system for Veterans. This long, multi-story brick building with a white-columned portico originated as a barracks built specifically to house female Veterans on the grounds of what was then called the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS). The establishment of the residence represented a rare victory for the female Veterans of the First World War in their quest to obtain government support for all uniformed women who served and sacrificed during that conflict.

U.S. participation in the First World War produced a shift away from relying on long-term institutional care for Veterans in need to a model of Veteran welfare centered around short-term hospitalization. During the war, the War Department assumed responsibility for tending to the sick and wounded. Afterwards, when the Army dismantled its hospital system, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) stepped in to fill the breach, acquiring numerous facilities the Army and Navy no longer wanted as well as other properties that could be used for medical purposes.

Frank Hines was the longest tenured VA leader, from 1923 until 1945 and end of World War II. He led two different Veteran agencies, first the Veterans Bureau and then the Veterans Administration. Despite constant challenges and changes to the system, he was a stable leader for a new federal agency.

After the Civil War, thousands of Volunteer Soldiers needed care. Two women, Delphine Baker and Emma Miller were critically important to the creation and operation of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the governments answer to providing healthcare to the Union volunteers during the Civil War.

The Civil War Veterans who resided in the barracks or entered the hospital at the Central Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS) in Dayton, Ohio, knew that the home cemetery was most likely going to be their final resting place. a Veteran’s last journey, reported the Cincinnati Enquirer, followed a literal “underground path of death." Dayton's Tunnel terminated at a gated portal on the edge of what is now Dayton National Cemetery.

The Dayton Bible highlights the important role that religious faith and chaplains played in the lives of the National Home residents as well as later generations of Veterans.

VA History Exhibit - Postcards were used frequently in the late 19th and early 20th century to capture Veterans' daily life at the 11 different National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers branches, which were early VA campuses. Check out the artwork and photographs from that era in this exhibit by VA History Office intern Kara Wheeler.

Sending Memorial Day greetings! Over a century ago, the craze for penny postcards with a pretty picture introduced a fast, affordable means to communicate. Like Instagram. Decoration or Memorial Day was a very popular and patriotic greeting theme—depicted with flags, flowers, and veterans. Explore deltiology through a sampling of holiday postcards from the NCA History Collection.

On March 4, 1865, as the Civil War entered its final weeks, President Abraham Lincoln second inaugural address was delivered from the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol. Four years earlier, he had stood in the same spot when he spoke to the crowd that had assembled for his swearing in as the sixteenth President of the United States.

This time, his speech focused on the task ahead for the country, a stirring call for healing and reconciliation. A significant section of his speech was a solemn promise to those who had fought to restore the Union: "...let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

While women have served in nearly all of America’s wars, it wasn’t until after World War One that female Veterans achieved access to government health care.

A Togus time capsule filled with objects and historical materials provides a snapshot of a particular time and place. This capsule was found on the Togus National Cemetery in Maine while masons were working on a monument.

Beer halls and beer gardens were familiar to Civil War Veterans who resided at branches of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS). The administrators limited consumption in these beer halls by selling beer tokens or tickets that were exchanged for beer. The compromise was welcomed by administrators and Veterans alike.