In the American Civil War the Home Guard or Home Guards were local militia raised from Union loyalists.
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In Missouri after the start of the Civil War there were several competing organizations attempting to either take the state out of the Union or keep the state within it. Home Guard companies and regiments were raised by Union supporters, particularly German-Americans, to oppose the secessionist paramilitary Minutemen, secessionist elements in the official Missouri Volunteer Militia and eventually the secessionist Missouri State Guard. Many of the Home Guard regiments in the St. Louis area were raised from pre-existing Wide Awakes, a Republican Party organization established during the 1860 election, and from members of the German Turnverein cultural organization.
St. Louis Unionists were mustered into Federal service in April 1861. Five regiments were designated the 1st–5th Missouri Volunteers and five additional regiments were created as the United States Reserve Corps. The second group were commonly referred to as the (St. Louis) Home Guard, and their creation was criticized as these regiments exceeded the requirement for Missouri volunteers under the Militia Act of 1792. During the Price–Harney Truce, Governor Claiborne Jackson and Missouri State Guard commander Major General Sterling Price demanded that the 1st–5th U.S.R.C. be disbanded as illegal organizations. (These regiments continued to serve though the Missouri Secession Crisis, later being converted into three-year regiments.)
Once actual hostilities began in the state in June 1861, Union loyalists as Home Guard units in areas outside of St. Louis were organized and mobilized by Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon to oppose Sterling Price's Missouri State Guard, which was forming at the same time. One of these units, the Benton County Home Guards, was defeated by a battalion of Missouri State Guards at the Battle of Cole Camp. [1]
In late 1861 and early 1862 the three-month-service Home Guard were replaced by Unionist militia regiments, including the new Missouri State Militia, as well as the compulsory Enrolled Missouri Militia in July 1862, and the Provisional Enrolled Missouri Militia, formed later.
One particularly famous Home Guard militia was that of Columbia, Missouri. In 1864, it was rumored that Price, by then a Confederate general, was planning on turning his march through Missouri towards the staunchly pro-Union town. Columbia had value not only as a stronghold of pro-Union thought, but served as home to a garrison of Union troops and prison located in the library and main academic building at the University of Missouri. Worried about Price's raid and concerned about the presence of bushwhackers in the surrounding areas of pro-Confederate Boone County, 90 men assembled a militia named the Fighting Tigers of Columbia. The brigade stockpiled weapons, kept watch, set up a warning bell for the town, and dug a moat around the city courthouse. The University of Missouri's athletic programs are named in honor of the militia. [2]
Iowa Home Guard companies provided border defense along the Missouri border during the Civil War. During the Battle of Athens, Missouri, Iowa Home Guard companies on the other side of the Des Moines River protected the supply depots.
The Kentucky Home Guard participated in the Battle of Barbourville, Kentucky in September 1861 as well as the Battle of Camp Wildcat and many other skirmishes such as the Battle of Augusta (1862).
Union supporting Home Guards in Pendleton County, Virginia (in the mountains of what is now the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia) attacked Confederate works and small detachments with indifferent success during the war. The best known of these irregulars called themselves the "Swamp Dragons".
Union volunteer infantry regiments known as the Indian Home Guard were recruited from the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory. Although the tribal leadership had supported the Confederacy, many of the tribal members did not.
Claiborne Fox Jackson was an American politician of the Democratic Party in Missouri. He was elected as the 15th Governor of Missouri, serving from January 3, 1861, until July 31, 1861, when he was forced out by the Unionist majority in the Missouri General Assembly after planning to force the secession of the state.
The Camp Jackson affair, also known as the Camp Jackson massacre, occurred during the American Civil War on May 10, 1861, when a volunteer Union Army regiment captured a unit of secessionists at Camp Jackson, outside the city of St. Louis, in the divided slave state of Missouri.
The Battle of Carthage, also known as the Engagement near Carthage, took place at the beginning of the American Civil War on July 5, 1861, near Carthage, Missouri. The experienced Colonel Franz Sigel commanded 1,100 Federal soldiers intent on keeping Missouri within the Union. The Missouri State Guard was commanded by Governor Claiborne F. Jackson himself and numbered over 4,000 soldiers led by a hero of Mexico, Sterling Price, along with 2,000 unarmed troops who did not participate in the battle.
The First Battle of Boonville was a minor skirmish of the American Civil War, occurring on June 17, 1861, near Boonville in Cooper County, Missouri. Although casualties were extremely light, the battle's strategic impact was far greater than one might assume from its limited nature. The Union victory established what would become an unbroken Federal control of the Missouri River, and helped to thwart efforts to bring Missouri into the Confederacy.
The St. Louis Arsenal is a large complex of federal military weapons and ammunition storage buildings operated by the United States Air Force in St. Louis, Missouri. During the American Civil War, the St. Louis arsenal's contents were transferred to Illinois by Union Captain Nathaniel Lyon, an act that helped fuel tension between secessionists and those citizens loyal to the Federal government.
The Missouri State Guard (MSG) was a military force established by the Missouri General Assembly on May 11, 1861. While not a formation of the Confederate States Army, the Missouri State Guard fought alongside Confederate troops and, at various times, served under Confederate officers.
During the American Civil War, Missouri was a hotly contested border state populated by both Union and Confederate sympathizers. It sent armies, generals, and supplies to both sides, maintained dual governments, and endured a bloody neighbor-against-neighbor intrastate war within the larger national war.
Franklin Archibald Dick was an American lawyer, politician and military officer during the American Civil War. He served as a Republican member of the Missouri state legislature and worked with Francis P. Blair Jr. to oppose slavery in Missouri. He served as volunteer assistant adjutant general to Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon in the struggle to prevent Missouri secession to the Confederacy that resulted in the Camp Jackson Affair. He also served as Missouri provost marshal general and lieutenant colonel under Major General Samuel Curtis. After the war, he worked as a law partner with Montgomery Blair at the Blair House in Washington, D.C.
The Enrolled Missouri Militia was a state militia organization of Missouri in 1862 during the American Civil War. It was a part-time force whose primary purpose was to serve as garrison and infrastructure guards, both to augment the Unionist Missouri State Militia in defense versus raids and to free the Missouri State Militia for offensive operations versus Confederate guerrillas and recruiters.
The Missouri State Militia was a federally funded state militia organization of Missouri conceived in 1861 and beginning service in 1862 during the American Civil War. It was a full-time force whose primary purpose was to conduct offensive operations against Confederate guerrillas and recruiters as well as oppose raids by regular Confederate forces. The militia at one time numbered more than 13,000 soldiers, but this force was reduced to 10,000 soldiers, by the United States government.
Alexander Early Steen was a career American soldier from Missouri who served in the United States Army in the Mexican–American War. He rejoined the army in 1852 and served until he resigned to join the Confederate forces on May 10, 1861. He served as a general in the secessionist Missouri State Guard forces and as a colonel and acting brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in the Battle of Prairie Grove.
The 2nd Missouri Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment, formed from a voluntary regiment using the same name, that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The units of the Arkansas Militia in the Civil War to which the current Arkansas National Guard has a connection include the Arkansas State Militia, Home Guard, and State Troop regiments raised by the State of Arkansas. Like most of the United States, Arkansas had an organized militia system before the American Civil War. State law required military service of most male inhabitants of a certain age. Following the War with Mexico, the Arkansas militia experienced a decline, but as sectional frictions between the north and south began to build in the late 1850s the militia experienced a revival. By 1860 the state's militia consisted of 62 regiments divided into eight brigades, which comprised an eastern division and a western division. New regiments were added as the militia organization developed. Additionally, many counties and cities raised uniformed volunteer companies, which drilled more often and were better equipped than the un-uniformed militia. These volunteer companies were instrumental in the seizure of federal installations at Little Rock and Fort Smith, beginning in February 1861.
The 1st Missouri Infantry Regiment evolved from one of several unofficial pro-Unionist Home Guards militia formed in St. Louis in the early months of 1861 by Congressman Francis Preston Blair Jr. and other Unionist activists. The militia that would become the First Missouri was largely composed of ethnic Germans, although Companies K and I had significant numbers of native born American citizens and Irish-Americans. Although initially without any official standing, beginning on April 22, 1861, the four "underground" militia regiments Blair helped organize were sworn into Federal service at the St. Louis Arsenal by Captain John Schofield acting on the authority of President Lincoln.
The Minutemen was a secessionist paramilitary organization in St. Louis, Missouri in the early months of 1861. Many members joined the 2nd Regiment of the Missouri Volunteer Militia, and after May 10, 1861 the Missouri State Guard or the Confederate States Army.
The 4th Missouri Infantry Regiment evolved from one of several unofficial pro-Unionist militia units formed semi-secretly in St. Louis in the early months of 1861 by Congressman Francis Preston Blair Jr. and other Unionist activists. The organization that would become the Fourth Missouri was largely composed of ethnic Germans, who were generally opposed to slavery and strongly supportive of the Unionist cause. Although initially without any official standing, beginning on April 22, 1861, four militia regiments Blair helped organize were sworn into Federal service at the St. Louis Arsenal by Captain John Schofield acting on the authority of President Lincoln. Secessionists and opponents of Unionist military organizing in Missouri in 1861 commonly referred to this unit as the "Black Guard" and "the blaggards".
The 3rd Missouri Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It arose from a group of volunteers who were active from April to September 1861.
The 138th Infantry Regiment is a light infantry regiment of the United States Army and the Missouri National Guard.
The 3rd Missouri US Reserve Corps Infantry Regiment evolved from one of several unofficial pro-Unionist militia units formed semi-secretly in St. Louis in the early months of 1861 by Congressman Francis Preston Blair Jr. and other Unionist activists. The organization that would become the Third U.S.R.C was largely composed of ethnic Germans, who were generally opposed to slavery and strongly supportive of the Unionist cause. 20 percent of the men of the regiment were "native" U.S. citizens. Although initially without any official standing, beginning on April 22, 1861, the Unionist regiments Blair helped organize were sworn into Federal service at the St. Louis Arsenal by Captain John Schofield acting on the authority of President Lincoln.