Minnesota Home Guard

Last updated

The Minnesota Home Guard was a volunteer state defense force of the state of Minnesota. The Minnesota Home Guard, along with the Minnesota Motor Corps were originally organized in 1917 with the purpose of replacing the Minnesota National Guard in protecting the state of Minnesota while the National Guard was deployed during World War I. Both the Home Guard and Motor Corps were created by the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety to defend the state's resources and preform both civil and military duties including riot control, emergency management, funerals, and honor guards. The Minnesota Home Guard also acted as special deputized military police. The Home Guard operated under the command of Minnesota Adjutant General Walter F. Rhinow and was under the ultimate authority of the Governor of Minnesota Joseph A. A. Burnquist. [1] The Home Guard was utilized as riot police during the 1917 Twin Cities streetcar strike.

Contents

Minnesota Home Guard
Company C of Mankato's Home Guards, Mankato, Minnesota - DPLA - 6ecb16ea14d74706ee0156243ce3effa.jpg
Company C of Mankato's Home Guards, Mankato, Minnesota
Active1917-1920
DisbandedDecember, 1920
CountryFlag of the United States.svg United States
AllegianceFlag of Minnesota (1893-1957).svg Minnesota
Branch Army
Type SDFBranchInsigniaColor.jpg   State Defense Force
Role Military reserve force
Size
  • 7,000+ (Home Guard)
  • 2,583 (Motor Corps)
Engagements First World War
Commanders
Governor of Minnesota J. A. A. Burnquist
Adjutant General of Minnesota Walter Fred Rhinow

History

The Home Guard

The Minnesota Commission of Public Safety (MCPS) was created on April 16, 1917 shortly after the American entry into World War I as a way for the state of Minnesota to manage its resources to provide for the ongoing war effort. Likewise, on April 28, 1917 the MCPS created the Minnesota Home Guard. The Home Guard was unofficially created by the MCPS in order to enforce the MCPS’s orders, many of which infringed on the rights of citizens and were considered in some circumstances to be unconstitutional. [1] [2] [3] The Minnesota Home Guard was an entirely volunteer force as opposed to a conscripted force. Volunteers in Home Guard service were not paid unless they committed to extended active duty. Only men over the age of 26 were recruited for the Home Guard. [1] [2] [3] Battalions of the Minnesota Home Guard were based upon cities and counties, for example Company B of the 6th Battalion was recruited almost entirely from Fairmont, Minnesota. [4] Over the course of the war, the Home Guard eventually consisted of 23 battalions with more than 7,000 personnel. [5]

16th Battalion, Minnesota Home Guard

The Minnesota Home Guard was also the only military unit in the state of Minnesota that provided an African American unit, the 16th Battalion of the Minnesota Home Guard during a time when the military was still racially segregated in April 1918. The 16th Battalion, also called the Colored Home Guards of Minnesota, became the first Minnesota-recruited African American military unit in state history. [6] The 16th Battalion was created by Clarence W. Wigington after petitioning Governor Burnquist to create a similar organization for black Minnesotans who also wanted to serve their state. [7] [8] [9] The 16th Battalion of the Minnesota Home Guard was commanded by Wigington and consisted of two total companies, Company A and Company B. According to the Ramsey County Historical Society "Wigington himself commanded Company A; Dr. Earl Weber, a dentist, was first lieutenant, and J. Homer Goins was second lieutenant. Fred McCracking served as the unit’s recruiting officer. Captain Jose H. Sherwood, St. Paul’s first African American postal supervisor, commanded Company B. Serving under him were Orrington Hall as first lieutenant; J. W. Stepp, the city’s first black electrician, as second in command, and attorney Hammond Turner as recruiter". [10]

Minnesota Motor Corps

Similar to the Home Guard, the Minnesota Motor Corps was founded in 1917 and formed under the sponsorship of the MCPS. The Minnesota Motor Corps was founded by local businessman Roy B. Simming, the secretary of the Minneapolis Automobile Trade Association. The Minnesota Motor Corps essentially acted as a more mobile version of the Home Guard and double over as traffic police and were under the shared authority of both local sheriffs and the state military. [11] The Motor Corps was authorized in May of 1918 under the authority of Adjutant General of Minnesota Walter Fred Rhinow. [12] although the two organizations often blended together and provided many of the same services, the Home Guard was created by law while the Motor Corps was not. [12]

The Motor Corps was organized into a brigade of 10 battalions, numbering roughly 2,583 officers and enlisted personnel from Minnesota. The corps’ headquarters was at Colonel Stephens’ car dealership in Minneapolis. The motor battalions were supplemented by three additional units; a Medical Corps commanded by Major Thomas Warham, an Aero Division commanded by Captain John P. Ernster, and a Red Cross auxiliary unit of the Motor Corps. [12]

Deployment and Use

The MCPS used the Minnesota Home Guard as a de facto private police to quell labor disputes and labor strikes. Most famously/ infamously, the Home Guard was used to break the 1917 Twin Cities streetcar strike. After dispersing a crowd of thousands, the Home Guard closed off six square blocks of downtown Saint Paul and instituted martial law. Most pro-labor advocates saw the Home Guard as a tool of business interests and the private army of a dictatorial governor. Use of the Home Guard helped lead to the unification of the Nonpartisan League and labor interests, such as the Industrial Workers of the World. [1] The Home Guard was used to great effect during several natural disasters from 1917-1919 including both the Cloquet Fire, witch destroyed large portions of Cloquet, Duluth, and Moose Lake, as well as the 1918 Tyler tornado which killed 36 people and injured over 100 others. [1] [13] Remaining elements of the Minnesota Home Guard were dissolved by December, 1920 after the dissolvement of the MCPS.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 DeCarlo, Peter J. "Minnesota Home Guard | MNopedia". www3.mnhs.org. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  2. 1 2 DeCarlo, Peter J. (2015-01-27). "Defenders of order and infringers of rights: the mixed record of the Minnesota Home Guard". MinnPost. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  3. 1 2 MNopedia, PETER J. DECARLO (2020-09-09). "The Minnesota Home Guard". Southernminn.com. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  4. ↑ Nelson, Arthur M. (1920). Martin County in the World War: 1917-1919 (PDF). Fairmont, Minnesota: Sentinel Publishing Company. pp. 36–37.
  5. ↑ DeCarlo, Peter J. (2017). "Loyalty Within Racism: The Segregated Sixteenth Battalion of the Minnesota Home Guard During World War I". Minnesota History . 65 (6): 208–219. JSTOR   26368707.
  6. ↑ DeCarlo, Peter J. "Sixteenth Battalion, Minnesota Home Guard | MNopedia". www3.mnhs.org. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  7. ↑ "African American woman in a Minnesota Home Guard Lieutenant uniform". Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  8. ↑ "Cap Wigington | The Engines of Our Ingenuity". engines.egr.uh.edu. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  9. ↑ "Maceo Littlejohn (SPCL 1926) | Mitchell Hamline History Center" . Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  10. ↑ McWatt, Arthur (1993). "What's Historic About This Site?: The Highland Park Water Tower and Its Architect, Clarence Wigington" (PDF). Ramsey County History. 28 (1): 26–27 – via Ramsey County Historical Society.
  11. ↑ DeCarlo, Peter J. "Minnesota Motor Corps | MNopedia". www3.mnhs.org. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  12. 1 2 3 DeCarlo, Peter J. (2017-09-18). "War in cars: the brief history of the Minnesota Motor Corps". MinnPost. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
  13. ↑ Nelson, Paul. "Cloquet, Duluth, and Moose Lake Fires, 1918 | MNopedia". www3.mnhs.org. Retrieved 2025-10-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.