Naval_Battalion

California's 1849 Constitution had provided authority for both an "army and navy of this State". However, the formation of a state navy or naval militia force in this state was not made until 1891, when by an act of the Legislature entitled: “An act to establish a naval battalion, to be attached to the National Guard of California”, the Legislature authorized the formation of this state's Naval Militia.

First known as the Naval Battalion of the National Guard of California, the first company of Naval Militia on the Pacific coast where sworn in August 1891, making California the first of the Pacific states to muster a Naval Militia force and the third in the nation. On October 16, 1891 the commanding officers of four respective companies met in San Francisco and, with the organization perfected, the Naval Battalion was mustered in as part of the National Guard of the State.

By 1893, California's Naval Battalion of the National Guard consisted of "four companies of naval militia, with headquarters at San Francisco." At that time, it had a total strength of 23 officers and 280 seamen, making it the largest naval militia in the country, exceeding even New York and Massachusetts. During the years 1895 and 1916, the Naval Battalion gradually assumed a position of importance in the National Guard of California as new arms and equipment of the latest model were supplied by the United States government, making this branch of the State Forces the best equipped body in the National Guard at that time.

During this period, seven U.S. ships were loaned to the State as official training ships and some fourteen other Naval ships were used for short periods of time in drills. These ships include the Battleship Oregon; Cruisers Olympia, Charleston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Albany, Alert, Hull, Marion and Marblehead; Monitors Comanche, Monadnock and Wyoming; Torpedo Boats Farraugut, Perry, Hopkins, Lawrence and Whipple; Gun Boat Pinta; and several small boats or gigs including the Hartford.

By 1916, the nation’s second Aeronautic Section had been organized in California as well as a Marine Detachment. The following year, the California Naval Militia had a numerical strength of nearly one thousand officers and enlisted men.

Throughout its existence, California's Navy would provide officers and sailors for service in vessels of the U.S. Navy during two wars — the Spanish-American War and in World War I. These officers and sailors, citizen soldiers of their day, acquitted themselves so well in those conflicts that the Secretary of the Navy acknowledged the California Naval Militia as one of the finest military organizations of its kind to enter federal service. Apart from federal service, the California Naval Militia was activated for several state emergencies such as the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire when local units assisted the California National Guard in restoring civil authority to that stricken city.

The nature of modern sea warfare ultimately doomed the Naval Militia, despite the belated application of the Dick Act embodying the principle of Federal control over the Naval Militia. With the establishment of the modern Naval Reserve in 1915, the Navy Department saw little future need for the citizen-sailor not under their direct control. Even so, our modern day Naval and Marine Corps Reserves are merely the successors of their National Guard brothers of the Naval Militia over 100 years ago

Naval Battalion of the National Guard

Origins of the Naval Militia of California

Related Pages

Genesis of the Naval Reserve

http://www.militarymuseum.org/NavRes.html

History of California State Naval Forces

http://www.militarymuseum.org/CNM.html

Naval Battalion of the National Guard

http://www.militarymuseum.org/NavBn.html

http://www.militarymuseum.org/CalNavBn.html

History of the Naval Militia Movement, 1888-1898

http://www.militarymuseum.org/NavMilitia.html