1836 Texas' First Congress established the General Land
Office.
1916 The Casper Weekly Press for December 22, 1916: Wars everywhere
The Casper Weekly Press issued on December 22, 1916 warned that "Uncle Fears War". The papers were full of war warnings which, looking back, not only proved accurate but also can't help to call to mind that Woodrow Wilson had just been elected for keeping us out of war and yet the news was headed rapidly, and accurately, in the other direction.
In terms of other wars, the Casper paper reported that Villistas had killed 50 Constitutionalist soliders, hardly a large number by European standards but a scary one for a nation that had been worried about the direction the war in Mexico was taking for months.
In other grim news, two died in a refinery fire in Casper. There is at least one famous refinery fire in Casper's history but it's not this one. I can't find any details about it.
Finally the American Automobile Association, which I didn't even know existed that long ago, came out in support of a concrete highway across Wyoming. Such an improved highway remained quite a few years in the state's future at that time, but it's interesting to note how people were already pondering it.
1917 Mrs. Cody reacquires title to the Irma Hotel, in Cody. Attribution. Wyoming State Historical Society.
1917 December 22, 1917: The United States Guards Authorized
1916 The Casper Weekly Press for December 22, 1916: Wars everywhere
The Casper Weekly Press issued on December 22, 1916 warned that "Uncle Fears War". The papers were full of war warnings which, looking back, not only proved accurate but also can't help to call to mind that Woodrow Wilson had just been elected for keeping us out of war and yet the news was headed rapidly, and accurately, in the other direction.
In terms of other wars, the Casper paper reported that Villistas had killed 50 Constitutionalist soliders, hardly a large number by European standards but a scary one for a nation that had been worried about the direction the war in Mexico was taking for months.
In other grim news, two died in a refinery fire in Casper. There is at least one famous refinery fire in Casper's history but it's not this one. I can't find any details about it.
Finally the American Automobile Association, which I didn't even know existed that long ago, came out in support of a concrete highway across Wyoming. Such an improved highway remained quite a few years in the state's future at that time, but it's interesting to note how people were already pondering it.
1917 Mrs. Cody reacquires title to the Irma Hotel, in Cody. Attribution. Wyoming State Historical Society.
Louisa and William F. Cody in later years.
1917 December 22, 1917: The United States Guards Authorized
Red Cross repsentatives marching with members of the New York State
Guard in 1918. This is, of course, the State Guard, not the United
States Guards.
Showing a distinctly different approach to things than would be taken
during the Second World War, something that will continue to be the case
as we read more about Woodrow Wilson's approach to Federalism during
World War One, the United States Guards were authorized on this day in
1917. They were part of the National Army, i.e. that part of the Army
raised from civilians for the war, as opposed to those parts made up of
the combined National Guard and Regular Army. While they were part of
the National Army, they were under the authority of the Militia Bureau
(today's National Guard Bureau). Of interest, at the same time the
Federal Government was encouraging states to raise units of State
Guards.
Some explanation of what these various units are or were is necessary to make much sense out of this story, of course.
The National Guard is well known to Americans, of course, and the nature
of the National Guard would be evident to anyone who has been reading
this blog over the past two years, as various National Guard units were
called up and deployed to the Mexican border to be followed by the mass
call up, and then mass conscription for odd legal reasons, of the
National Guard in 1917. As has also been seen, and a much different
practice from what would occur in later years, states actively recruited
for National Guardsmen right up until they were formally inducted into
the U.S. Army and even proposed new National Guard units, much like they
had done with the formation of state units during the Civil War.
Much different from the Civil War or even the Spanish American War,
however, changes to the structure of the American military establishment
following the Spanish American War had formalized its status as a
reserve of the Army and caused the Militia Bureau to come about to deal
with that. The regularization of the National Guard as the state
militia country wide created, in all states and in some territories the
creation of those units to fill both a local militia role and to be the
reserve of the Army in time of war. In a few states this was
controversial and they ended up accordingly splitting their state
establishments between the National Guard and a State Guard, with the
liability of the State Guard in times of war being fairly unclear. The
latter would seem to have been so liable as long as the fighting was to
occur within the boundaries of the United States. Rhode Island provides
us one such example, Maryland another. Most states did no such thing,
however.
When the US entered the Great War in 1917 the National Guard, lately
back from the Mexican border, was first called up and then conscripted
in mass. Indeed, it was expanded and therefore the result was that the
states now lacked, for the most part, men for local militia service,
should it be needed. That was one perceived problem.
A second was that, in spite of how we recall it today, the U.S. entry
into World War One, while largely popular, was not entirely popular
everywhere. We've already had the example of a revolt against
conscription and perhaps the war in general in Oklahoma. To compound
that, the teens were at the height of the radicalization of the American
labor movement and labor was much less willing to go along with the
Federal government as part of the war effort than it would be in later
years. Those who have read the newspaper entries here have seen the
ones about trouble in the vital coal and rail industries, two industries
that literally had the ability to completely cripple the nation.
Beyond that, the Administration of this era was highly intolerant to
radical dissent and tended to see the events in Russia as if reflected
in a distant mirror in the United States.
Given all of that, the Federal Government perceived there being a need
for internal security forces at a national level. To take up that role,
it formed 48 regiments of United States Guards. By the end of 1918,
1,364 officers and 26,796 men were serving in the United States Guards,
stationed in the continental United States and the Territory of Alaska.
These men were taken from the many men found unfit for service in the
National Army, something which the readers of the newspapers here would
also have noted, although the regulations provided that such departures
from physical standards had to be "minor". While physical standards for
service were far less strict than they are now, frankly American health
wasn't what the covers of The Saturday Evening Post and Leslie's might
suggest. Plenty of men were too old, infirm or in ill health so as to
go to France with the National Army. 18,000 of the men who served in
the United States Guards fit the category of men with a "minor" physical
defect who had been conscripted but, because of their condition, could
not go oversees. They were volunteers from the National Army into the
United States Guards. The balance were men whose condition precluded
them from being drafted in the first instance, or who were above
conscription age as the United States Guards would take able men who
were above the service age. After August 1918, when the Selective
Service operated to process all incoming servicemen, a crack in the door
that had existed for overage men to attempt to volunteer for the
National Army was closed but they could still volunteer for the United
States Guards. Some of them ended up in the 48 regiments of United
States Guards maintained to keep the wolf at bay in the US itself.
Enormous panoramic photograph of Michigan state troops, June 1917.
I've never been certain if these cavalrymen are National Guardsmen or
State Guardsmen. If they're National Guardsmen, they're irregularly
equipped in that they're carrying riot batons and lever action rifles,
both of which would be extremely odd for National Guardsmen of this
period even taking into account that prior to the Punitive Expedition
some units were still privately equipped to some degree. This suggests
state equipage, which was common for State Guards.
They didn't do it alone. The various states had to form State Guard
units as, even though its rare, State Governors lacked an armed force
for internal security in the event of riots or disasters. Substitute
militia units were authorized and formed in every state, drawing from
the same pool, to some extent, as the United States Guards, but with
less connection to the formal National Army. They were also less
regularly equipped as well, relying on old or irregular weapons.
For the most part, these units saw no action of any substantial type at
all, but there is one notable exception, the Texas State Guard, which
remained constantly deployed on real active service on the Mexican
border, augmenting the United States Army which carried on in that role
all throughout the war. The United States Guards did provide security
in Alaska, wild and far duty at that time (the initial unit was made up
of men from a waterways unit), and in controlling IWW strikes in Arizona
in 1918 and 1919. They also were used to suppress a race riot in North
Carolina in 1918.
After the war, the United States Guards were disbanded, with that
formally coming in 1920 but with actual demobilization starting on
November 11, 1918 and continuing on into 1919. The states largely
disbanded the State Guard units, but a few retained them, with states
that had such units before the war being in the forefront of that.
During World War Two State Guard units were again reestablished
everywhere, after the National Guard was federalized in 1940, although
this did not have happy results everywhere. No effort was made to
re-create the United States Guards and no need to do that was seen.
Today, some states still retain State Guard units that augment their
National Guard establishments, but most do not.
Photographs, we'd note, of the United States Guards are exceedingly
difficult to find, and therefore we've posted none. They were issued
obsolete U.S. arms, like the Krag rifle, or non standard arms, like
rejected Russian Mosin Nagants. While not equipped with the latest
weapons going to France, these arms were more than adequate for the role
the units performed. Uniforms were initially going to be made up of
blue dress uniforms of a late pattern, which did not vary greatly from
field uniforms of the late 19th Century, but this was soon rejected on
the basis that it deterred enlistment on the part of the men who did not
want to be identified with rejected uniforms for rejected service.
Their service is obscure, but like that provided by State Guardsmen on
the Mexican boarder during the war, it was real service. It started on
this day in 1917.
1918 December 22, 1918. Some days the headlines are just weird.
1921 President Warren Harding signed an Executive Order that designated expanded the National Elk Refuge into, additionally, a bird refuge.
1921 President Warren Harding signed an Executive Order that designated expanded the National Elk Refuge into, additionally, a bird refuge.
1942 It is announced that a major butane plant will be built by Continental Oil Company at Lance Creek. Lance Creeks saw a huge boom in oil activity during World War Two.
1958 Herbert J. Brees died in San Antonio Texas. Brees was born in Laramie in 1877, and graduated from the University of Wyoming with a BS in 1897. He earned a LLD, a version of a JD, in 1939, very late in his Army career.
He served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Volunteer Cavalry during 1898 as a volunteer for the Spanish American War and transferred from it in to the Regular Army in 1898. He served initially in the artillery after joining the regular Army, but thereafter served principally in the cavalry branch until his retirement in 1941. One of this last roles in the Army was as the Chief Controller for the Louisiana Maneuvers. Brees Field, Laramie's airport, is named for him.
1978 The Downtown Cheyenne Historic District added to the National Registry of Historic Places.
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