California Militia and National
Guard Unit Histories
Riverside Home Guard
(12th Company, California Home
Guard)
The following article was copied from
the December 22, 1917 issue of California Home Guard News
Captain, ESTUDILLO
First Lieutenant, H. E. MITCHELL
Second Lieutenant, W. G. IRVING
First Sergeant, FRANK Russell
Estudillo is ex-captain of Co. M ; Mitchell is an ex-major of
the Seventh Regiment and is now military instructor of the Sherman
Institute.
Have sixty men in good standing in our company. They are business
and professional men of the city of Riverside.We have had a hard
time in uniforming the men, but we have succeeded; that is to
say, the members of the Twelfth Home Guard Company have gone
into their own pockets to furnish uniforms for themselves.
We organized a Rifle Club last year under the rules and regulations
of the War Department, consisting of three hundred members. This
gave us sixty Krag-Jorgenson rifles from the Government, and
as most of the members of the Home Guard are members of the Rifle
Club, we have succeeded in arming the Home Guard with rifles
in this manner. Other members of the Home Guard who are not members
of the Rifle Club have purchased their own rifles.
At first we had no meeting place; we have secured the use of
the court house and met there until the latter part of September,
when we secured the use of the Armory. The State would not pay
for this, and we were about to be left without a roof over our
heads, when the city of Riverside came to our rescue and is actually
paying the rent of the Armory.
We drill every Wednesday night and have taken part in every patriotic
parade organized for the benefit of our soldiers in the field.
On the Fourth of July we took part in a competitive drill with
the San Jacinto Home Guard and won a beautiful silken banner.
We also took a determined part in crushing the socalled pacifist
sentiment in this community.
The personnel of the Riverside Home Guard is of the highest.
For instance, we have a minister, Rev. C. H. Emmons, in the ranks,
who is very active and faithful to his duties.
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