The Garde was organized at a local level, originally in all communes with more than 30,000 inhabitants. It was composed of citizens aged between 21 and 50, who did not already have military obligations as serving soldiers or reservists. Those aged between 21 and 32 were required to undertake training ten times annually, while the second class (aged 33–50) were obliged only to register their addresses at regular intervals. A third class was composed of older volunteers, who were not equipped, uniformed or armed and were expected only to provide support functions in their local regions. As a voluntary body the Garde Civique was, in peacetime, the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior rather than the Ministry of War. Most of the Garde units were infantry but there were some artillery