As early as February 27, 1829, a report was made to Congress by the Committee on Military Affairs upon the subject of establishing an “army asylum fund,” and letters were submitted from the major general commanding and other officers of the army expressive of their views on the subject.  In February, 1840, General Robert Anderson (then a captain in the adjutant general’s department) addressed a letter to Hon. John Reynolds, giving his views upon the benefits and advantages which would result from establishing such an institution, with suggestions for a plan for one.  This letter formed the basis of a report, January 7, 1841, by the Committee on Military Affairs, submitting a bill in which the measures suggested therein were embraced, and urging the necessary legislation as commending itself “by every attribute and motive of patriotism, benevolence, national gratitude, and economy.”  General Scott was deeply interested in the subject, and in 1844 gave it special prominence in his annual report, which led to a report as theretofore from the military committee.  On March 5, 1846, a report was also made on a memorial of the officers of the army stationed at Fort Moultrie and the petition of officers of the Second United States Infantry, and later (on January 19, 1848) upon the memorial of the officers of the army then in Mexico.  The committee in each case approved and recommended the passage of the bill reported January 7, 1841.  The plan, however, did not assume practical shape until the transmission by General Scott of the draft for one hundred thousand dollars, a part of the tribute levied on the City of Mexico for the benefit of the army, requesting that it might be allowed to go to the credit of the asylum fund.  He says in a letter dated November, 1849, referring to the same matter:  “The draft was payable to me, and, in order to place the deposit beyond the control of any individual functionary whatever, I indorsed it.  The Bank of America will place the within amount to the credit of the army asylum, subject to the order of Congress.”  This fund, together with a balance of eighteen thousand seven hundred and ninety-one dollars and nineteen cents remaining from the same levy, was subsequently appropriated to found the asylum.  By the act those who are entitled to the benefits of the asylum were soldiers of twenty years’ service and men, whether pensioners or not, who have been disabled by wounds or disease in the service in the line of duty.  An honorable discharge is a preliminary requisite to admission.  The inmates are all thus civilians.  At first the general in chief, the generals commanding the Eastern and Western military divisions, the chiefs of the quartermaster’s, commissary, pay, and medical departments, and the adjutant general of the army composed the board of commissioners ex officio to administer the affairs of the institution.  An unexpended balance of fifty-four thousand three hundred and nineteen dollars and twenty-three cents was appropriated “for