but also to provide more hospital facilities to meet the changing medical needs of the members. Considering the ages for Civil War participants ranged from 13 to 43 years in 1860, the Home could have expected continuing admissions well into the 20th century. The Board indicated a new understanding of the population makeup when it recommended that Congress change the eligibility requirements for admission to the Home by allowing benefits to all destitute soldiers unable to earn a living, without having to trace their disabilities to their military service. The Board realized that denying benefits to this large group of veterans meant their only recourse was the poor house. In 1883, the Board, recognizing the changes the Home would face with increased membership and increased medical needs of the members, conceded that an "institution like the National Home must in time become an enormous hospital." It concluded that all new buildings for the Home must be planned with that in mind. As a result, the Board asked for Congressional appropriations to enlarge the hospital at the Central Branch and to build a new hospital at the Southern Branch. At the September 1883 Board meeting, the managers considered asking Congress for the transfer of Fort Riley, Kansas, to the Home as a new facility. They understood the fort was likely to be abandoned since the end of most of the Indian Wars, and it would be easily adaptable to Home use. The Board tabled the motion, but the issue of establishing additional branches of the National Home had been raised. On July 5, 1884, Congress approved the Board’s recommendation to change the eligibility requirements for admission, allowing any veterans disabled by old age or disease to apply without having to prove a service-related disability. In effect, the Federal government assumed responsibility of providing care for the aged veterans; what had been established as a temporary asylum for the disabled in 1866, had become a permanent home for the elderly. This legislation provided for expansion of the National Home by authorizing branches to be established west of the Mississippi and on the Pacific Coast. With the loosening of restrictions, the Home rapidly had an increase of 12% in membership, but it had not gained additional funding from Congress. The Board returned to Congress with a request for deficiency funding, arguing that the Home could either go into debt, which was illegal under