Military Troop? When?

[Silver Creek Slim]

My great grandfather is in the upper right of this picture. I am trying to find out info on this picture. Is it a military troop? What time period would it be, etc? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

St. George,
If you think this thread is not appropriate for this forum, just tell me and I will delete it.

Slim

[Delmonico]

Do you know what year he was born?  I would take a guess a CCC  group in the 1930's.  The pants have belt loops so most likely after WWI.  The cooks in the aprons make me guess CCC, often they are wearing aprons in group pictures.  Besides that there are woods in the background, they often worked in National parks building trails and such.

[Silver Creek Slim]

He was born on Dec. 15, 1881. He lived in Clark County, WI.

Slim

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[Delmonico]

That would make him 17 during the Span. Amer. War and in his 50's during the CCC days.  That would place him at the early 30's at the start of WWI.  National guard troops during that time often had leftovers from the Span. Amer. War.

[St. George]

Looking at your Photo - I'd say it belonged to one of the many Spanish-American War Volunteer outfits.
Take a copy and go down to your State Historical Society - if your ancestor was from your state, of course - and ask.
They'll most likely have a copy of their own and can furnish you with far more detail.
You'll be able to learn the name of the outfit, its combat history, when it was mustered and when they folded their flags.
You should also get a unit roster.

Good Luck!

Scouts Out!

[St. George]

Since this was posted on The Frontier Spot as well - you'll find a bit more clarification.

Scouts Out!

[Standpat Steve]

Silver Creek Slim,

Let us know what you learn, when you find out!

[Delmonico]

Slim is still trying to figure out the pomagrate question I E-Mailed him today. 

Fun picture Slim, dig up another or two, I can't remeber for sure but somewhere on the American Memory site I found a bunch of the panaramic phots.  Will search again and rebookmark it.  I lost it a couple of weeks ago when I did the no no with this thing.

[Silver Creek Slim]

I just sent an email to my great aunt to find out if she knows anything about his military service.

Slim

[Silver Creek Slim]

The following is the reply I received from my great Aunt.

It was a Home guard unit. I think it was a way for a farm boy to earn a bit of money. I am not sure how long he was in it. If you checked with the commander of the unit, or with the county he served, maybe that would generate more info.

I assume "Home guard" is the same as the National Guard. I will next try to get info from the county he lived in at the time.

Slim

[St. George]

The Home Guard was different from National Guard.
It was more like what would eventually become the "State Guard" around the WWI time frame and would take over some of the small security/emergency duties that the Guard would've handled if they weren't mobilized and Federalized for war.

The uniforms for the early HG units would've been partly military-issue and partly civilian - depending on how much "extra" stuff the State had in its warehouses.
Firearms were likely to be shotguns (no - no shotgun slides) and the maybe even the odd Winchester and were privately-owned.

Contact the Adjutant General's Office for Wisconsin and ask to talk to their Command Historian to find out more.

From what I see - his outfit was pretty well outfitted with serviceable Spanish-American War issue clothing.
If it was pre-WWI - they had khaki uniforms by then, and had had them since about 1905 - 1910.

Home Guard/State Guard units were phased out long ago, so any information is going to be archived either in the National Guard's storage, or in those of the State Historical Society.

In Nebraska - all of it went into the dumpsters...
Except for its insignia - an old Warrant Officer saw to it that I got it all, since he knew I collected that sort of thing.

Good Luck!

Scouts Out!

[Will Ketchum]

Slim our state historical society has a lot of stuff and they have a building on the capital square dedicated to veterans and the military.  It use to be called the War Museum but I'm not sure it still is.  I haven't been there since it moved and I live and work in the ame city

Will Ketchum

[Silver Creek Slim]

Thanks for the information St. George and Will. I will be checking with both offices to see if I can find more info.

Slim

[38OVI]

All of them are wearing breeches with leggings, which look like what was issued in 1917 after the M1910 Leggings were replaced. They may be a bit shorter than the 1898 leggings.  M1908 & M1910 Breeches have regular belt loops - we have post cards in our collections from the 1912 - 1916 period showing RA troops wearing personally owned belts on their breeches.  The hat style is either Span-Am period or M1911 Peaked hat changed to look like a hat with just the center crease, hard to tell from the picture, but I lean towards the former.  The cook is probably wearing denim work clothing.  In the front row, there are two officers, both with the leather officer's leggings of the WW I style and wearing ties.  To the left of the bugler, you can see the man in the front row is wearing a marksmanship badge. Without being able to see the detail on the shirt, it is not possible to tell if they are wearing S-A wool shirts with full button fronts or the later 3 button M1910 wool shirt.  My instinct goes with the blue wool shirt.  Probably Post S-A National Guard prior to the July 1, 1916 reorganization of the Army at all levels. 
One other thought - There were 49 Battalions of United States Guards raised between January 1918 until their demobilization in February of 1919.  Generally used for guarding government installations.  Made up of men unable to serve overseas or those who were possibly exempt from the draft.*                 * Order of Battle of the US Land Forces in the World War (1917-19) Zone of the Interior Directory of Troops in Alphabetical Order. GPO Washington, D.C. 1949  Volume 3 Part 2     PP 1566-1570. 

[Galen]

Sitting next to the officers the soldier has a cigarette in hand. My guess is around 1900 fort Riley Ks.