In 1778, Congress authorized the creation of a U.S. Marine Hospital fund, known as the Hospital Service Act, to care for disabled and sick Marines. In 1779, they extended the care to include the Navy. At the time, each enlisted man had 20 cents deducted from their paycheck each month to pay for this program.
In 1887, a marine hospital was constructed on Indian land near the Mississippi River in Tennessee. The hospital operated for almost fifty years, and played a role in the study of yellow fever, before being torn down and replaced with a new building in 1937.