The National Home (called Asylum up to 1873) for Disabled
Volunteer Soldiers was founded in 1865 to look after volunteer soldiers who had
been injured or disabled during the American Civil War. Twelve homes were
opened across the United States, beginning with the first home in Togus, Maine
in 1866.[1]
Home
|
Location
|
Date Established
|
Eastern Branch
|
Togus, Maine
|
1866
|
Central Branch
|
Dayton, Ohio
|
1867
|
Northwestern Branch
|
Wood, Wisconsin
|
1867
|
Southern Branch
|
Hampton, Virginia
|
1870
|
Western Branch
|
Leavenworth, Kansas
|
1885
|
Pacific Branch
|
Sawtelle, California
|
1888
|
Marion Branch
|
Marion, Indiana
|
1888
|
Roseburg Branch
|
Roseburg, Oregon
|
1894
|
Danville Branch
|
Danville, Illinois
|
1898
|
Mountain Branch
|
Johnson City, Tennessee
|
1903
|
Battle Mountain Sanitarium
|
Hot Springs, South Dakota
|
1907
|
Tuskegee Home
|
Tuskegee, Alabama
|
1923
|
Bath Branch
|
Bath, New York
|
1929
|
St. Petersburg Home
|
St. Petersburg, Florida
|
1930
|
Table 1: Chronological year of opening of National Homes for
Disables Volunteer Soldiers
Both Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org
have the database United States National
Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938. It contains almost
400,000 records and the page for each veteran in the registers is divided into
four parts: military history, domestic history, home history, and general
remarks. Just over 28,100 of the entries
are for men who were born in Ireland. Of those, the Irish county or place of
birth is recorded for almost 500 men.
County
|
No. of records
|
Dublin
|
124
|
Cork (inc. 2 Queenstown)
|
60
|
Galway
|
43
|
Limerick
|
32
|
Tipperary (incl. 1 Templemore)
|
28
|
Donegal (incl. Donnegal)
|
18
|
Derry/Londonderry
|
18
|
Mayo (incl. May & 1 Charlestown)
|
18
|
Tyrone
|
14
|
Sligo
|
14
|
Kilkenny
|
13
|
Roscommon (incl. Rosecommon)
|
12
|
Waterford
|
11
|
Kerry (incl. 1 Killarney)
|
11
|
Kildare
|
8
|
Cavan (incl. Caven)
|
6
|
Antrim
|
6
|
Clare
|
6
|
Armagh
|
5
|
Down
|
4
|
Offaly (incl. Kings)
|
4
|
Westmeath
|
4
|
Monaghan (incl. Monoghan)
|
3
|
Leitrim
|
3
|
Longford
|
3
|
Wexford
|
3
|
Wicklow
|
3
|
Fermanagh
|
2
|
Carlow
|
2
|
Laois (incl. Queens)
|
2
|
Meath (incl. 1 Navan)
|
2
|
Louth
|
1
|
Castle Borough, Ireland
|
1
|
Clashmore, Ireland
|
1
|
Rockville, Ireland
|
1
|
Drummond, Ireland
|
1
|
Barr, Ireland
|
1
|
Kilduff, Ireland
|
1
|
Kenmore, Ireland
|
1
|
Bangor, Ireland
|
1
|
County Carney, Ireland
|
1
|
Grey Abbey, Ireland
|
1
|
Ardmore, Ireland
|
1
|
Clifton, Ireland
|
1
|
TOTAL
|
495
|
Table 2: No. of records that give Irish county/place of
birth
The questions asked on the pro-forma registers changed slightly
over the years but a core of questions were asked throughout:[2]
(i) military history - time and place of each enlistment, rank, company and
regiment, time and place of discharge, cause of discharge, kind and degree of
disability, when and where contracted; (ii) domestic history - where born
(state or country and town or county), age, height, complexion, color of
eyes, color of hair, read and write, religion, occupation, residence
subsequent to discharge, marital status/social condition, name and address of
nearest relative; (iii) home history - rate of pension, date of admission
re-admission and transfer, condition of re-admission, date and discharge of
transfer, cause of discharge, date of death, cause of death (iv) general
remarks - papers, effects, location of grave and remarks.
Not every question is answered
for each resident, especially in the records of those who were admitted to the
first few national homes. However, most
questions were usually answered and this is a tremendous amount of detail about
one individual, especially in the 19th century. It is also unusual to see a
government document ask about the religion of a person.
 |
| Entry for Austin Connelly, born about 1810 Dublin, Ireland |
To share one example, Austin
Connelly entered the Central Branch home in Dayton, Ohio on 13 July 1875. He was born in Dublin, Ireland about 1810. In the United States, he
worked as a shoemaker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He first enlisted in the
109th Pennsylvania volunteers on 22 February 1862 at Philadelphia. He was discharged
in 1863 before re-enlisting in the 116th Pennsylvania volunteers in February
1864. A relative was named as John Finnell of Camden, New Jersey. Austin
Connelly died on 4 May 1891.[3]
Access this database at Ancestry.com and
Familysearch.org.
[1]
National Parks Service. History of the
National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. Date Unknown. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/veterans_affairs/History.html:
accessed 28 November 2015.
[2]
Questions with strikethrough were asked in later years
[3] "United
States National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938,"
database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZ39-D1Y
: accessed 28 November 2015), Austin Connelly, 1875; citing p. 5403, Dayton,
Ohio, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1749 (Washington D.C.:
National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 32; FHL microfilm
1,547,614.
