A look at the Guard in the field, 1913-1914

[Txfarrier]

And as apossible explination for the appearance of the guardsman is this exerpt from a contemporary acount:

"On the 19th of April, 1914, machine guns, used on the strikers in the Paint Creek strike, were placed in position above the tent colony of Ludlow. Major Pat Hamrock and Lieutenant K. E. Linderfelt were in charge of the militia, the majority of whom were, company gun-men sworn in as soldiers."

http://notmytribe.com/2009/mother-jones ... 87476.html

[Pat Holscher]

And as apossible explination for the appearance of the guardsman is this exerpt from a contemporary acount:

"On the 19th of April, 1914, machine guns, used on the strikers in the Paint Creek strike, were placed in position above the tent colony of Ludlow. Major Pat Hamrock and Lieutenant K. E. Linderfelt were in charge of the militia, the majority of whom were, company gun-men sworn in as soldiers."

http://notmytribe.com/2009/mother-jones ... 87476.html

Frankly, I question that assertion.

I think the actual case is that there were company gun men at the event. But I also think that we're seeing, in these photographs, Colorado National Guard that was mustered. Ultimately, the Army ended up being deployed.

The problem, in part, with histories of these events is that they're relatively recent in time and were hot political issues for decades (even now) which tends to make for inaccurate histories, in my view. I can't claim to be very knowledgeable about this event, but I do know that a similiar hot topic, the Johnson County War, has been the subject of a bunch of works, not all of which are objective, and only one of which (of the ones I've read, I haven't read them all) probably stands as a really good academic work. Because people have vested interests, even now, in the portrayals, they tend to overemphasize one element or another of them, and they often completely skip the complicated legal backgrounds to these events which are a necessary, but somewhat dull, aspect of the story.

Here, the fact that the company employed gun men is well known. But this is also in the tail end of the era in which the National Guard tended to be used by states as strike breakers. This is a role that they did not want, but it did occur. The Guard had been working on getting out of the strike breaker business since the 1890s.

In terms of makeup, while I do not know this to be the case, it's highly likely that the Guardsmen who were mustered shared little sympathy for the strikers. This is also part of an era that saw a rise in nativist thought in Colorado (and Montana). Miners in the West in this era tended to be Eastern European immigrants. Guardsmen were likely drawn from the towns and farms, and tended to look at miners as exotic threats. The protesters were part of a rising seriously left wing set of movements that stood apart from the Progressive movement, which was also then on the rise, and certain elements of it really were hard corps leftist radicals. The same era had seen some seriously left wing protest in larger American cities, and even a gun battle in part of London.

Anyhow, while Ludlow isn't anyones idea of a successful outcome, it probably has to be viewed in the same way that some of protests of the 1960s should be, which is part of their times. The mining company did employ combatants at it, but the Guard and the mining companies were not one in the same. Here I think we're seeing Guardsmen, not mining company employees.

[Pat Holscher]

The pictures of the drawn sabers were taken during the time of the arrest of Mother Jones. An acount I encountered stated that numerous demonstrators were "struck down"

The potato digger was chambered first in 6mm Lee Navy, the two privately purchased weapons used by T.R. and the Roughriders were in 7x57 ,then of course 30-40 and later 30-06.

"You cant mine coal without machineguns"

Somewhere we have a potato digger thread. I'll bump it up when I get a chance.

[Pat Holscher]

http://www.cthistoryonline.org/cgi-bin/ ... DMROTATE=0

I think these are Connecticut National Guardsmen.

[Pat Holscher]

http://www.cthistoryonline.org/cgi-bin/ ... DMROTATE=0

Connecticut NG.

[Pat Holscher]

http://www.cthistoryonline.org/cgi-bin/ ... DMROTATE=0

1914

[rayarthart]

http://www.cthistoryonline.org/cgi-bin/getimage.exe?CISOROOT=/cho&CISOPTR=1858&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=750&DMHEIGHT=555.324459235&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=%20cavalry&REC=1&DMTHUMB=1&DMROTATE=0

I think these are Connecticut National Guardsmen.

Seems that it never changes, The National Guard resting when thing can be done. LOL

Looks like the escort for the trains. Reminds me of the TOC when I was on active duty. except with wagons.

[Philip S]

The Penna State Police were established in large part because of the labor problems. The governers did not like to use the National Guard and the company coal mining and railroad police were difficult to control. The strikers were, after all, voters too and the Penna State Police were supposed to be a relatively neutral force between the parties.

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/se ... =L2&mode=2

[Pat Holscher]

The Penna State Police were established in large part because of the labor problems. The governers did not like to use the National Guard and the company coal mining and railroad police were difficult to control. The strikers were, after all, voters too and the Penna State Police were supposed to be a relatively neutral force between the parties.

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/se ... =L2&mode=2

The National Guard itself, in many states, hated strike duty. This lead directly to the Dick Act and ultimately to the National Guard Bureau as the Guard began to fear, in the late 19th Century, that it was going to end up a type of state police for just such duty. Guard officers really pushed for a more formal Army reserve status as a result.

Of course, the Guard still gets riot and civil unrest duty, something that's always been problematic for it. Given that Guardsmen train as soldiers, and always have, they tend to have soldiers' reactions to unrest. There's been an effort since Kent State to train Guardsmen for this type of duty, but at least by my observation (now way out of date), it's fairly minimal.

[Pat Holscher]

A glimpse at the Guard on an extended mission in the field, the sad Ludlow strike episode. Colorado National Guard, 1913-1914.

Mounted column:

Caption:"Lieutenant Karl E. "Monte" Linderfelt and members of the Colorado National Guard, called in to suppress the UMW strike against CF&I, ride on horseback, probably in Ludlow, Las Animas County, Colorado. One man carries a two tone flag that reads: "A"."


"K. J. Linderfelt, a member of the Colorado National Guard called in to suppress the UMW strike against CF&I, poses on horseback near Ludlow, Las Animas County, Colorado."



Sergeant with a potato digger:


Potato digger emplacement:


Another potato digger:


All of these photographs are courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western Heritage Collection.

Pat

Bump, given the reference on today's history thread.

[Pat Holscher]

New York National Guard on the eve of World War One. No mounted photographs, and this isn't a cavalry unit, but interesting none the less.













Bain News Service photographs, public domain from the Library of Congress.

[Pat Holscher]

Sergeant with a potato digger:


Potato digger emplacement:


Another potato digger:


All of these photographs are courtesy of the Denver Public Library, Western Heritage Collection.

Pat

How long did these remain in any sort of U.S. use?

[Couvi]

I don't have any literature to reference, but I don't think they survived long after WWI.