During the American Revolutionary War (as the
Invalid Corps) and the American Civil War, the
US Army had organizations of wounded or chronically ill men for rear-area service, including caretaker duties. The Civil War organization was the
Veteran Reserve Corps, originally the Invalid Corps. The
Confederate States Army had a similar organization, the Southern Invalid Corps. Some smaller installations had only a single
ordnance sergeant as a caretaker during that rank's existence from 1832 to 1920. Between wars many
coastal fortifications would be among military facilities in caretaker status. For
coast artillery forts, General Order No. 83 of 1913 specified caretaker detachment composition and duties in detail, requiring a minimum of one
non-commissioned officer of coast artillery and three privates for each fort, also with an ordnance sergeant "when practicable". In late 1914 55 US coastal forts (including seven in Hawaii and Panama) were garrisoned, while 39 (including six overseas) were not; the latter were under construction or in caretaker status. == See also ==