MILITIA HISTORY GOES BACK TO CITY’S CREATION _______

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Citizen Soldiery* Existed Here Even Before Area Was Ceded as Site of Federal Capital. By John C la sett Proctor.

THE militia of the District of Co-

lumbia is. indeed, an old insti- tution, and even before the Capital had its own code of

laws military companies existed here under the laws of Maryland and Vir- ginia. depending upon that part of the Federal territory in which the par- ticular organization was located—in Washington County or Alexandria County. The former had been ceded to the Government by Maryland and the latter by Virginia.

One of the first military bodies formed in that part of the District1 which early was selected for the City of Washington was carrying on at le-st as early as 1796. and in 1797 took part in welcoming here Gen. Washington shortly after he had retired from the presidency and was on his way to Mount Vernon. This organization was known as the Wash- j ington Light Artillery Company and, j according to an old account printed! in one of Washington’s earliest news- i papers, dated March 15, 1797, met! the former President when he reached j the Capitol and saluted him with a discharge of cannon, and later, when j the distinguished visitor was passing the President's house, then under construction, a salute of 16 guns was fired.

On March 3. 1803. Congress made It obligatory for all male citizens be-

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tween the ages of 18 and 45 to muster once a month during certain seasons, end upon failure to do so were liable to a fine of $5 for neglect cf duty. To quote one authority of the period: “The consequence was many military companies were formed which flour- ished for a while until tired oi parade duty, when they dissolved and re- turned their arms to the United States.

T>Y 1835 so disgusted had become the then existing military companies

In the District of Columbia—which then included Alexandria—with the slipshod and indifferent way the militia was handled by the officers at muster and at other times that they staged on June 27 of that year what became known as a fantastic parade, and after one has read the following item, printed at a later date, it is quite certain he will agree the affair was all the word “fan- tastic" implies.

This is the account in full: “On the 27th of June. 1835, a fan-

tastical parade took place in Wash- ington. The militia trainings proving j onerous to business men. forcing them from their avocations, they resolved to manifest their displeasure and op- position to the same. Hundreds as- sembled at the City Hall, dressed—or rather undressed—in every conceiv- able and fantastical manner. For days previous the commons were diligently searched for broken-down horses for the use of the command- ing officers. Old smoke stacks were impressed for cannon and abandoned and dilapidated carriages were forcibly taken possession of for hospitals. Uniforms of Continentals, Shirt-tail Riflemen of the backwoods, smack frocks. Quaker hats and breeches and Joseph's coats were brought forth from their old depositories and with every conceivable costume of past ages enveloped the forms of the motley assemblage. Whitewash brushes and Potomac herrings were resorted to by the officers in the absence of epauletts. Ginger cakes supplied the place of uniform buttons. Tin pans, women's caps and undressed skins of various animals served as head- dresses for the occasion. We recol- lect one person, whose uniform con- sisted of every conceivable color and material. Above the seat of his breeches, through a hole in which his white handkerchief protruded, was a placard, with the inscription of ‘My voice is still for war!’ On the knapsack of another was ‘Dr. Dun- can and Brandeth’s Pills.’ Some had masks of various descriptions. Others had odd boots or shoes, some with one and others with no shoes on. The lame, the halt and the blind, as well as representatives of all nations, were recresented. wen tne female sex had meir reprsemativcs—in the character of nurses—attending the ! hospitals.

"The Major General, armed with a wooden sword, about six feet long, and mounted on a horse which had to be lifted up from the ground, having as- :

sumed command, proceeded In a ludi- crous manner to drill the regiment in the manuel of arms—broom sticks, corn-stalks, etc. Having carried them through, he gave the word to form, when every marching evolution not laid down in the books, and others not enumerated, were gone through with. Eventually, getting them into line, they marched from the City Hall

I through the principal streets to Georgetown, halting on their way in the front of the residences of the mili- tia officers oi the District, and in some

instances, groaning them. On arriv- ing at the President's house (the gates having been shut against them), they gave the President a salute with tin horns, kettles, pans, etc., when they proceeded on their march. Every few j minutes, some of the men would give ; out, and were taken to the hospitals in the line. The Surgeon (prescribing and administering from a black bot- tle) would soon pronounce them con- valescent and fit for duty, when they would resume their places in line, and others would be sent to the hospitals for similar treatment. The Major General, for some days previous, prac- ticed horsemanship on the back of a

bull, which proved too refractory for his generalship, throwing him in a pile of fresh mortar. He finally se- cured a steed, a descendant of the veritable Rosinante. and which in- herited til the qualities of that an- cient animal. Another officer road a jackass of the most diminutive size. His huge spurs oftener ploughed the ground than the sides of his animal.

"Some three' of four of the officers’ horses gave up the ghost before the troops were dismissed, dropping in the streets, while on the march. Such was the heat, crowd, and dust, that it was

impossible for the spectators to take full notes of the affair, further than to observe that the uniforms, mottoes, equipment, etc., were laughable and grotesque in the extreme. Words can- not accurately describe their fantasti-

(1) The Washington Light Infantry Corps base ball play- ers in costumes for a fancy dress party at Atlantic City, N. J., in 1893. (2) The Washington Light Infantry Corps basket ball team, District of Columbia champions, 1895-6. (3) Armory of the Washington Light Infantry Corps, erect- ed 1884, removed 1931. The theater over the armory orig- inally opened as Albaugh’s Grand Opera House. (4) Uni- form of the Washington Light Infantry Corps, 1893.

cal appearance, nor imagination sup- ply the ludicrous figures and cos- tumes. or fancy paint the tout en semblau. On the whole, we may not soon 'look upon their like again.' ”

T^ATURALLY this virtually killed j the militia. However, out of the

burlesque and ridicule came some good, for in a brief while race riots ensued, due to the attempt on the life of Mrs. William Thornton, wife of the architect of the Capitol, by her colored slave. The trial of Reuben Crandall, a white man. charged with endeavoring to incite insurrection among slaves, helped to make a bad situation worse and brought on the Snow riot, In which an apparently innocent, respectable colored man named Beverly Snow was saved from bodily harm only by his white friends.

The police-force of Washington then consisted of three men, and the burden of restoring the peace and keeping order thereafter naturally fell ori the shoulders of the law-abiding public, which at least was able to prevent any loss of life.

However, the harm had been done, and the good had been done, for the practical obliteration of the militia, through ridicule, soon awakened citi- zens to a realization of the necessity of a citizen soldiery, and, within a year, the Washington Light Infantry was organized and several others soon followed.

Many are too young to recall this wonderful body of men, and it is virtually impossible to describe the group as their elders knew the Wash- ington Light Infantry boys. Indeed, it is nice to dream it all over again and imagine we see this fine military corps as it marched along historic Pennsylvania avenue in white coats and enormous shakoes, marching some times in column formation, some times executing fancy maneuvers and then some times, to the delight of all, stretched out in lines reaching from curb to curb, as perfectly straight as men could possibly march. And what a hand they would get. No doubt the National Guard is a fine

fighting unit, but the writer is not willing to believe that they could put up such a drill as this organization and some of the other local military bodies of 40 and 50 years ago.

TN JUST about a year from now the A few remaining veterans of the Washington Light Infantry Corps will be celebrating the one-hundredth an- niversary of that once crack military body of the District of Columbia, evi- dently organized some time prior to August 31. 1836. when the Metropoli- tan. a newspaper then published in Georgetown, made this announce- ment:

“Washington Light Infantry.—A company of soldiers has just been or- ganised in the city, to be denominated the Washing t. l Light Infantry. We understand that t' e number amounts at prese to 40 members, who are all of them gentlemen of respectability and good standing. This company will be handsomely equipped and uni- formed. so as to make a respectable and soldierlike appearance on the 12th of September, when they expect to meet and join their Baltimore com- panions in arms.

“The following gentlemen have been elected officers of the Washington Light Infantry:

“J. A. Blake, captain. “Richard France, first lieutenant. “W. H. Mauro. second lieutenant. "John Mills, third lieutenant." A few days later, on September 5,

the same paper states:

“We understand that the number of volunteers into the Washington Light Infantry, commanded by Capt. Blake, has considerably increased since we last noticed them. The company amounts at present to about 60. all of them respectable mechanics or trades- men. From ail that we have learned relative to the military movements in the city, there io a very flattering prospect of raising three or four new companies of Cavalry and Infantry, such as will do credit to the metrop- olis and be of powerful advantage in case of emergency.”

During the uninterrupted existence

of the Infantry from 1836 to Febru- ary, 1861, when it went out of ex- istence. fairly good records w ere kept by this military organization, and from the date of its reorganization. May 15, 1871, to 1887, when it be- came a part of the National Guard, its records were well kept. In 1903. when the surviving members of the Washington Light Infantry Corps were forced to vacate their armory at Fif- teenth and E streets, in the building erected by them in 1884, and in which Wes located Albaugh's Grand Opera House, there were two members of the

corps who had sufficient presence of mind to save the records, namely, Maj. S. Porter House and Capt. Ed- ward W. Zea. who is a member of the Association of the Oldest Inhabitants, and it was through his kindness that

the writer was permitted to make ex- tracts from the minute books he has kept carefully for so many years.

/^APT. ZEA was born in Paris, Va. and came to Washington in 1882.

where he was engaged in business for many years. In the Light Infantry he was enrolled February 2. 1887. and rose to the rank of captain in Com- pany C. He is also a well known member of the Masonic fraternity and has filled many prominent posi- tions in that order.

Naturally, the records of the Civil War period of this organization are interesting, though they do not di- vulge, before that conflict began, the tense feeling that must have existed in Washington.

THOSE WERE THE HAPPY DAYS! *\Fireside Memories ' —By Dick Mansfield

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