Illinois Naval Militia

Illinois Naval Militia
Active	1898–1988 2006 (reauthorized)
Country	United States
Allegiance	Illinois
Type	Naval militia
Size	c.600 (1917)

The Illinois Naval Militia was a naval militia created by the Illinois General Assembly in 1893, and finally dissolved in 1988. The naval militia was reauthorized by Governor Rod Blagojevich through an executive order in 2006.^[1] As a naval militia it was a state defense force and not part of the Illinois National Guard or National Guard of the United States.

YouTube Encyclopedic

1/3
Views:
935
1 073
2 904

Transcription

Formation

In September 1892 a meeting was called by Lieutenant-Commander B. M. Shaffner, attended by more than 20 graduates of the Naval Academy at Annapolis who were resident in Chicago, which proposed the formation of a State Naval Militia. The following year a bill was finally passed, and approved by Governor Altgeld, which provided for the creation and establishment of the Illinois Naval Militia, to consist of two battalions, each having a maximum strength of 400 men, and a minimum of 140. The 1st Battalion was based in Chicago, and the 2nd Battalion in Moline on the Mississippi. The 1st Battalion initially had 225 men, divided into four divisions, while the 2nd Battalion, had 176 men at its foundation, soon rising to 206.^[2]

The 1st Battalion met one evening each week and practiced boat-drill, both sail and oar, and were trained in the use of torpedoes, for which a steam-launch was specially fitted; and in the use of artillery, the cutlass, and small arms. The Navy Department presented the First Battalion with a complete stand of Hotchkiss rifles, cutlasses and revolvers, a Hotchkiss Rotary Gun and a battery of four 3-inch breech-loading field guns. Each summer there was a three-week cruise, for which the Militia was loaned a ship, usually obsolete, by the Navy.^[2] Up until 1901 this was usually the USS Michigan.^[3]

The officers of the militia were all former naval men, and several were veterans of the Civil War. There was also an associate membership, composed of many of the leading merchants, bankers and professional men of Chicago, including Marshall Field, Lyman J. Gage, and Charles Deering. Further, honorary memberships were awarded to Shelby M. Cullom, J. Frank Aldrich, and Colonel Leroy P. Stewart, Inspector General of the First Brigade of the Illinois National Guard.^[2]

Following the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, there were plans to move the replica battleship Illinois to a pier near Van Buren Street, where the ship would have become the headquarters of the militia.^[4]

By 1896, the Illinois Naval Militia had five divisions: three in Chicago, one in Moline, and one in Alton, of approximately 250, 100, and 50 men respectively. At that time, it received $25,000 in federal funds annually, and operated several boats and a steam launch.^[5]

World War I

In late 1916 the Illinois Naval Militia was federalized into the National Naval Volunteers, created by an act of Congress and approved on August 29, 1916, under which the President was permitted to call them up for active duty with the United States Navy. Detailed plans for mobilization were prepared, and within forty-eight hours of the declaration of war on April 6, 1917, the entire Illinois Naval Militia had left Chicago by train for the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Some were actually at sea within a week of the declaration of war, and many more on the first group of ships that left the United States bound for Europe.^[6]

At that time the Illinois Naval Militia consisted of 579 men organised into:^[6]

Headquarters and staff, Chicago, 38 men under the command of Captain Edward A. Evers, including medical staff, paymaster and commissary
1st Division, Chicago, 40 men, Lieutenant John A. Mulholland
2nd Division, Chicago, 45 men, Lieutenant James D. Davidson
3rd Division, Chicago, 59 men, Lieutenant Glen G. Meade
4th Division, Chicago, 58 men, Lieutenant George H. Melvin
5th Division, Chicago, 54 men, Lieutenant Fred B. Orr
6th Division, Chicago, 38 men, Lieutenant Walter E. Davis
7th Division, Moline, 21 men, Lieutenant Otis W. Howard
8th Division, Peoria, 44 men, Lieutenant Benjamin R. Belsley
9th Division, Alton, 28 men, Lieutenant Josiah B. Maxfield
10th Division, Quincy, 55 men, Lieutenant William A. Johnson
Marine Company, Chicago, 41 men, Captain Franklin T. Steele

Later history

World War I marked the high-point of the Illinois Naval Militia. The United States Naval Reserve was formed in 1915, and those states that maintained Naval Militias received very little federal aid, and then only if the members of their state Naval Militia were also members of the Naval Reserve, which offered more benefits. There was also competition for personnel from the Marine Corps Reserve and Coast Guard Auxiliary. Inevitably, the Naval Militia's popularity began to decline.^[7]

By the 1970s, the Illinois Naval Militia had become little more than a social club located on the Chicago waterfront. When the city annexed the property, the militia effectively ceased to exist, but was not formally dissolved until 1988.^[8] However, on January 19, 2006, it was reauthorized, though never re-established, by an executive order of Governor Rod Blagojevich.^[1] Senate Republicans disputed the governor's authority to resurrect the militia.^[8]

Ships

Michigan (1893–1901)
Dorothea (1901–1909)
Nashville (1909–1911)
Dubuque (1911–1914)
Isla de Luzon (1914–1917)
Somers (1914–1918)
Patrol (1915-unknown)

References

^ ^a ^b "Governor : Executive Order 2 (2006)". www.illinois.gov. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
^ ^a ^b ^c Burke, W.H. (1894). "The Illinois Naval Reserve" (PDF). Outing. Vol. XXIV, no. September. pp. 465–474. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
^ "Illinois Naval Militia". Chicago Maritime Museum. 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
^ Adams, Cecil (22 April 2010). "Did Chicago once have a brick battleship?". Straight Dope Chicago. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
^ "The Illinois Naval Militia" (PDF). The New York Times. 21 June 1896. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
^ ^a ^b Illinois Adjutant General's Office (2 December 1929). Roster of the Illinois National Guard and Illinois Naval Militia as organized when called by the President for World War service. pp. 471–486. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
^ LCDR John H. Booth, USNR (1979). Naval Militias (Thesis). State University of New York at Potsdam. Archived from the original on April 8, 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
^ ^a ^b "Blagojevich brings back naval militia". www.pantagraph.com. Retrieved 21 October 2010.

v t e State defense forces and naval militia
State defense forces	Alaska State Defense Force California State Guard Connecticut State Guard Florida State Guard Georgia State Defense Force Indiana Guard Reserve Louisiana State Guard Maryland Defense Force Michigan Defense Force Mississippi State Guard New Mexico State Defense Force New York Guard Ohio Military Reserve Oregon Civil Defense Force Puerto Rico State Guard South Carolina State Guard Tennessee State Guard Texas State Guard Vermont State Guard Virginia Defense Force Washington State Guard
Naval militia	Alaska Naval Militia New York Naval Militia Ohio Naval Militia South Carolina Naval Militia Texas State Guard Maritime Regiment
Inactive/historical/defunct	Alabama State Defense Force Alaska Territorial Guard Arkansas State Guard Colorado State Defense Force Connecticut Naval Militia Delaware State Guard Florida Naval Militia Georgia Naval Militia Hawaii Naval Militia Hawaii Territorial Guard Idaho State Guard Illinois Naval Militia Illinois Reserve Militia Indiana Naval Militia Iowa State Guard Kansas State Guard Kentucky Active Militia Louisiana Naval Militia Maine State Guard Maryland Naval Militia Massachusetts Naval Militia Massachusetts State Defense Force Michigan Naval Militia Minnesota Naval Militia Minnesota State Guard Missouri Naval Militia Missouri State Defense Force Nebraska State Guard New Hampshire State Guard New Jersey Naval Militia New Jersey State Guard North Carolina Naval Militia North Carolina State Defense Militia Oklahoma State Guard Oregon Naval Militia Pennsylvania State Guard Pennsylvania Navy Rhode Island Naval Militia Rhode Island State Guard South Dakota State Guard Utah State Defense Force Washington Naval Militia Wisconsin Naval Militia Wisconsin State Defense Force

This page was last edited on 30 January 2024, at 23:16

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia