In 1777, The Continental Congress first established a Corps of Invalids. These individuals were physically unable to serve as regular infantry men, but were intended to serve as guards at magazines, hospitals and similar establishments. Colonel Lewis Nicola recruited men in Philadelphia during the summer of 1777 and established 8 companies at Boston and West Point. There were expectations that the Corps would serve as a military school at West Point, but this did not come to fruition. Then in 1802, Congress established the Military Peace establishment authorizing the President to establish a separate Corps of Engineers and station them at West Point to constitute a military academy. Along with legislating a pension system for disabled veterans or the invalid, the act essentially abolished the Corps of Invalids. After the War of 1812 ended, President Madison used his annual address to request the creation of a new Corps of Invalids. Madison felt this would be an honorable way to organize and employ meritorious individuals who would be normally excluded by age or infirmities.
"As an improvement in our military establishment, it will deserve the consideration of Congress whether a corps of invalids might not be so organized and employed as at once to aid in the support of meritorious individuals excluded by age or infirmities from the existing establishment, and to procure to the public the benefit of their stationary services and of their exemplary discipline."While Madison did not directly connect the Invalid Corps with West Point, he did immediately follow up his comments about "exemplary discipline" with a recommendation to enlarge the Military Academy. Perhaps, it was Madison's expectation that the Corps of Invalids would be stationed at West Point to aid in the military instruction of new officers.
"I recommend also an enlargement of the Military Academy already established, and the establishment of others in other sections of the Union; and I can not press too much on the attention of Congress such a classification and organization of the militia as will most effectually render it the safeguard of a free state. If experience has shewn in the recent splendid achievements of militia the value of this resource for the public defense, it has shewn also the importance of that skill in the use of arms and that familiarity with the essential rules of discipline which can not be expected from the regulations now in force."There were some expansions at the Military Academy after 1815, but ultimately the bill to establish the Corps of Invalids was ultimately rejected by Congress in 1816. Almost 50 years later during the Civil war, the Union in great need of fighting men established the Invalid Corps in April of 1863. By the end of the Civil War, the Invalid Corps had 1,000 officers in command of 60,000 enlisted men. The title was renamed the "Veteran Reserve Corps" and was officially disbanded in March of 1869.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29457
http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/corps-invalids
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Peace_Establishment_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_American_Regiment_(1783%E2%80%931784)
http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2016/07/1810-james-madison-corps-of-engineers.html
http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2016/12/1815-james-madison-veterans-pension.html
http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/invalid-corps-full-active-duty-americas-disabled-soldiers-return-war
http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2016/07/1810-james-madison-corps-of-engineers.html
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/United_States_Military_Academy_11-1-2008.jpg
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