First up - today is the 374th Anniversary of the Massachusetts General Court setting a militia establishment of three regiments, to be drawn at need from all able-bodied men in the colony aged 16 to 60 (less ministers and judges, the first "exemptions" to the draft...). So today is counted the birthday of the National Guard. Happy birthday boys and girls!
The First Muster in 1637; this took place after the December 13, 1636 Massachusetts General Court declaration established three regiments within the colony to defend against enemy attack and preserve villages established in the colony per English militia tradition (Print courtesy the National Guard Bureau)
Nice matchlocks and helmets and spontoon (the spear-looking thingy the Sergeant is holding. How do I know he's a Sergeant? He has a spontoon, silly), too. Need to score some for the Arsenal.
Later, on this day in 1774, the Brits were to find that letting the locals have guns was usually a bad idea. What's a government to do? Ya want 'em armed when you want to go killing someone (and have someone risk some dying for you) but you want 'em disarmed and tractable otherwise. Tsk.
So, on December 13, 1774, Paul Revere made his *first* ride (some months before that April 18th 1775 one we all have read about). Bearing news of approaching British ships, the ruffian roused the rabble and they called out the militia. Today, Revere would properly be put on the Terrorist Watch List by TSA since every time he travels violence against the goverment breaks out.
Pity poor Captain Cochrane, ranking representative of His Britannic Majesty's government. He and five troops, guarding the powder stores at Fort William and Mary had just finished a nice lunch when word arrived at 1PM of an armed angry mob headed his way. Hey! Is there an NRA convention in town? Another Tea Party rally down by the docks?
At 3PM, the mob arrived, heated words were exchanged, and a couple of shots traded to no effect. The mob then stormed the Bastille (no, wait, that's a different mob some years on) the ramparts and Fort William and Mary, symbol of brutal repression (unless of course the French or Indians were nearby, or some of them hosers from Maine, eh?) fell to the forces of darkness, er, Goodness and Light. Rumor has it our Bill was present, he having been scamming off the Guard for a living for some time...
Captain Cochrane bravely refused to turn over the keys to the powder store. Rather than go all medieval or Kent State on his butt, the National Guardsmen exercised some restraint (for which Bill takes unlikely credit) and behaved like rioting hooligans in Seattle, breaking down the doors to the powder store.
Hey, your version may vary, but only in how you choose to color your prose. I'm partial to a rich snarky purple today.
Like rioting hooligans in Seattle, or rioting college students in London?
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Back during my all expense paid tour of sunny Southeast Asia, our mortar platoon had several members of the Kansas National Guard in it. Apparently, their plan to forego the tropical climes went awry in the military's bureaucracy and they received their personal invitations to the festivities. Talk about guys with a major case of the ass!!! Somehow, and in the best National Guard tradition, they all made it home in almost one piece.
Hey, John - It ain't MY blog. Take it up with Tanker!
Ah ah ah! Take responsibility here, Mark-me-boy. The Cajun's entitled to his opinion, but *yer* the one that brought it over here!
Not that I really mind, though sometimes the thread hijacks you guys collectively make are bemusing...
. . . the National Guard is not the militia the Second Amendment is all about, and it is not the militia the Militia Act of 1792 is all about. The National Guard became the “Organized” Militia by legislative fiat in 1903, when the United States Congress bribed states with federal funds into keeping their Volunteer Regiments raised for the Spanish-American War in existance as part-time soldiers. The National Guard is a Reserve Component of the Federal armed forces.
National Guardsmen are part-time Regulars, differing from Reservists only in being subject to call up for State emergencies.
States were intended by the Founders to have their own organic defense capabilities independent of the War Department.