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New and Recommended:
New Book on California
Military History: The
California Center for Military History is proud to announce the
publishing of its latest book on the history of San Francisco
during World War II. Order now by clicking
here.
CW2 John Garvey and the California Center
for Military History
Paperback, 128 pages
Arcadio Publishing (January 15, 2007)
Everything changed on the morning of December
7, 1941, and life in San Francisco was no exception. Flush with
excitement and tourism in the wake of the 1939 Golden Gate International
Exposition, the city was stunned at the severity of the Pearl
Harbor attack, and quickly settled into organized chaos with
its new role as a major deployment center for the remainder of
the war. “Frisco” teemed with servicemen and servicewomen
during and after the conflict, forever changing the face of this
waterfront city. Warships roamed the bay, and fearsome gun embankments
appeared on the cliffs facing the sea, preparing to repel an
invasion that never happened.
Camp Roberts, in the Salinas Valley, is
one of California’s largest military training camps. Named
for a heroic World War I tank driver, it took the threat of global
war in 1940 to kick-start its construction. Soon Camp Roberts
had a capacity to house and train 23,000 men. During the war,
almost half a million men trained here. Row upon row of wooden
buildings, replete with churches, stores, a hospital, and an
amphitheater where A-list stars performed, made it a mobilized
city of 45,000 at its peak. In 1946, it became a ghost town overnight.
Revived during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, it passed into
National Guard control in 1971. However, all branches of the
military continue to train here, and the camp has renewed relevance
for troops bound for the Middle East.
Camp San Luis Obispo, founded in 1928 amid the starkly beautiful
rolling hills north of San Luis Obispo, has an ideal central
California location. It is the original home of the California
National Guard and remains today the Guard's principal training
facility. In 1941 the U.S. Army commandeered the post, enlarging
it to over 10,000 acres for the training of half a million soldiers
and 42 infantry divisions. Salinas Dam, 20 miles away, was built
to provide a dependable source of water for the troops. Reverting
to the state after major conflicts, the camp is also the headquarters
for the U.S. Army Reserve, California Specialized Training Institute,
and a host of agencies and academies. It remains on the frontline
for modernizing the military into the 21st century.
The story of this vital military installation
is told here by the California Center for Military History using
the extensive archives of the Guard, Camp San Luis Obispo, and
the California State Military Museum. Over 200 photographs capture
the experiences of many soldiers who served their state and nation
at Camp San Luis Obispo, the natural beauty of the area, and
the prominent buildings of this historic post.
Tells the little known story of the five
hundred volunteers from California known as the "California
Hundred and Battalion", who fought in the East during the
Civil War years 1863-1865 as a part of the Second Massachusetts
Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. Genealogists, teachers, researchers,
and historians will gain new insights into California's involvement
in the Civil War in the East, which has been largely overlooked.
Hardcover - 352 pages
(June 2002)
Texas A&M University Press
Since colonial times Americans
have used the militia to maintain order during both war and peacetime.
Barry M. Stentiford tells the story of these militia units—variously
called home guards, State Guard, National Guard Reserve, and
State Defense Forces.
Stentiford traces the evolution of the militia over the past
century, demonstrating its transformation from an amalgamation
of state units into the National Guard. Ironically, the National
Guard made the creation of other militia forces necessary during
periods of war, as the home guards were organized to fill the
vacuum left when the National Guard was called up.
Stentiford analyzes the challenges faced by State Guards as they
built their new militia with leftover men and material. He also
examines the role of the State Guard: providing relief during
disasters, providing military training for future draftees, and
broadening participation in military units during wartime by
giving a role to men who, because of their age or occupation,
could not join the federal forces.
Today modern state militias must define a role for themselves
in a society that increasingly views them as anachronistic. They
must also compete with so-called unorganized militias for the
title of true heir to the American militia tradition.
Hardcover - 219 pages (October 2001)
McFarland & Company
The Second Massachusetts Cavalry included
the only organized group (5 companies totaling 504 men) from
California to fight in the east during the Civil War. Led by
a young Boston aristocrat, Colonel Charles R. Lowell, these men
began their wartime careers in Northern Virginia in 1862, clashing
with the partisan rangers of Major John S. Mosby, in a deadly
world of guerrilla warfare. In August of 1864, the regiment was
assigned to Major General Phil Sheridan's Army of Shenandoah
and served through all of the battles in the victorious campaign
to clear the valley of Confederates, witnessing the final surrender
at Appomattox Courthouse. This account tells what these men from
California and Massachusetts accomplished, how they communicated,
and how they viewed themselves. The book contains three appendices
that list the battle casualties of the regiment during its largest
engagements. Photographs and a bibliography are also included
This first complete history of Angel Island
covers more than two hundred years of the island's complex and
fascinating historic past, including Miwok Indians, Spanish explorers,
U.S. Army occupation during the Civil War and World Wars I and
II, the Immigration Station and a Nike Missile base during the
Cold War.
California
Sabers: The 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry in the Civil War by James McLean
Hardcover (December 2000)
Indiana University Press
This is the story of the California Battalion and Hundred, a
group of 500 select men who were the only organized group of
Californians to fight in the East during the Civil War--as the
cadre of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry. The Second Massachusetts
fought a bloody guerilla war against John S. Mosby, the confederacy's
"Gray Ghost," and then went on to battles across Virginia
and finally to a stand that blocked Lee's army at Appomattox.
This work, based on extensive research, is the first comprehensive
history of this relatively unknown group and will be of great
interest to Civil War enthusiasts and historians.
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New Book on California
Military History: The
California Center for Military History is proud to announce the
publishing of its latest book on the history of San Francisco
during World War II. Order now by clicking
here.
Camp
Roberts
Camp
San Luis Obispo
Their
Horses Climbed Trees: The Chronicle of the California 100 and
Battalion from San Francisco to Appomattox
The
American Home Guard: The State Militia in the Twentieth Century