Following the Civil War, the United States military returned to an all-volunteer force. The Indian Wars and Spanish–American War did not require large numbers of soldiers. Adventist denominational history is mostly silent in regard to these conflicts. When World War I erupted in Europe there was much more cause for concern. The Seventh-day Adventist Church looked at the issue in the Autumn Council of 1916 in the General Conference Committee for a way in keeping with the church's noncombatant beliefs, to allow the young men of the church to fulfill their obligations, and the medical military service was the direction they took.