Veterans' benefits

Throughout history war veterans have received compensation. Roman soldiers were given rewards at the end of their service including cash or land (praemia). Augustus fixed the amount in AD 5 at 3000 denarii and by the time of Caracalla it had risen to 5000 denarii. 

US Military personnel receive death benefits after retirement from active military duty, retirement compensation, educational reimbursement, and access to substitutionary insurance otherwise unavailable to civilians.

Retired or separated United States armed forces personnel who were injured while serving on active duty can apply for disability or compensation through the US Department of Veterans Affairs. There are also both federal and state education, health and vocational benefits for all veterans who served.

Archival record of the benefits awarded to injured soldiers and veterans of the American Civil War began after 1865. Union soldiers received a more committed pension archival effort on the part of the Federal government, thanks to superior databases in the North and a more stable bureaucratic oversight. Turmoil during Reconstruction in the war-weary South made any effort at maintaining pension records difficult if not impossible. Later university-led research projects would give insight into the history of pension provisions by the Federal government leading up to the Civil War. These analysis shed light on the ever-changing role of compensation in American society and delved into the idea that American Revolutionary War soldiers received superior care after war than later Civil War veterans.

In 1932 veterans from the First World War marched on Washington as the Bonus Army,also known as the Bonus Expeditionary Force.