University of Virginia Library

Virginia State Guard

Plans for the organization of the Charlottesville unit of the Virginia
Protective Force, Company 103, were in the making before the
departure of the Monticello Guard. At the banquet for the Guard,
just prior to its being called into Federal service, Captain Edward V.
Walker, who had been designated to command the Charlottesville
company of the new organization, told the Guardsmen that their
places would be filled by the Virginia Protective Force during their
absence. Walker announced a seven-man committee to enlist recruits
for the new company, to be composed of a maximum of sixty. The
popular zeal for the Protective Force became evident at an organizational
meeting, on February 10, 1941, when eighty applications for
membership were received. A week later at a meeting at the Court
House, forty men, the minimum number for a company, took the
oath of enlistment administered by Captain Walker. The commanding
officer stated that he had submitted recommendations for
James Philip Grove and Sterling L. Williamson to be first and second
lieutenants, respectively. On the night of March 3, 1941, Company
103, Virginia Protective Force (the title was changed to Virginia
State Guard in February, 1944), with fifty-three members, was
mustered into the service. Governor James H. Price, making an
unexpected visit to the New Armory, praised Captain Walker and
his company on the enthusiasm demonstrated in the organization
of the unit.[2]

The newly-created militia was not a “home guard” but rather
was subject to duty throughout the state, just as had been true
in the case of the National Guard. Also like the Guard, the arms
for the Force were furnished by the War Department. The men
received no pay for their service but were required to meet two hours
each week for drill and instruction. Company 103 of the V.P.F.
was outfitted originally with a blue-gray uniform consisting of shirt,
trousers, and mackinaw purchased with funds provided by the city
and the county. In April, 1942, the state allotted $18,000 for
the purchase of summer uniforms of khaki. The distinguishing
insignia was a shoulder patch, on which appeared the Virginia state
seal circled by the words “Protective Force.” Later the words “Virginia
State Guard” were substituted thereon.[3]

As the organization of the state militia was rounded out, Charlottesville
was designated as battalion headquarters for the 10th
Battalion. Captain Walker was promoted to the rank of lieutenant
colonel to command this newly-created unit, which was composed
of companies in Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Harrisonburg, and
Staunton. Colonel Walker announced that Walter E. Fowler, Jr.,
who had formerly been a lieutenant in the Monticello Guard, had
been made a captain in the V.P.F. and battalion adjutant. Louis

J. Matacia, one of the organizers of Company 103, became battalion
sergeant major.[4]

The men trained with a great deal of ardor, and after the first
quarterly inspection Colonel Walker commented that “the company
is in excellent condition, considering the fact that it has had four
months training at one drill per week, and is now ready to fulfill
any obligation that may be imposed upon it.”[5] When Frank Ix,
Jr., of Charlottesville presented the men with locally-manufactured
neckties to be worn with their blue-gray uniforms, he stated that
units of the type of Company 103 should cancel fear “from without
or from within.”[6]

Throughout the summer of 1941 the training of the company
continued with parades, schools, and maneuvers. Four representatives
from Company 103 and the 10th Battalion attended a two-day
school at Virginia Military Institute during early July.[7] The
Fourth found the company participating in the Independence Day
parade. The Monticello Guard returned from Fort George G. Meade,
Maryland, for the event, which turned out to be a wet affair, as a
sudden downpour caught the paraders.[8] Company 103 also received
its share of promotions during the summer, for when Grove
was raised to the rank of captain, Williamson was promoted to first
lieutenant, and Charles L. Wingfield became the junior officer in
the unit.[9] The summer's activities culminated in week-end maneuvers
at Camp Albemarle, near Free Union. Regular Army discipline
was maintained with a schedule which included more than
a little close order drill. Captain Grove took a platoon of his
company to Free Union for a demonstration of problems in riot duty.
Meanwhile a detachment under Lieutenant Wingfield captured the
camp and the forces therein without arousing the camp guard under
Sergeant Harry Craven. Some members of the company commented
that they got more out of the maneuvers “than a month's training
at the Armory.”[10]

During the fall and winter there was no letdown from the activities
of the summer. The organization of the 10th Battalion was
rounded out by the formation of a medical section. Captain John
F. McGavock, battalion surgeon, was assisted in his duties by seven
enlisted men.[11] The first assembly of the 10th Battalion was held
at Scott Stadium during the morning of the annual University of
Virginia-Virginia Military Institute football game, which was attended
that afternoon by the battalion as guests of the University
of Virginia. The Adjutant General and other officials of Virginia
were present that morning for the battalion's review and parade.
Company 103 received its first call to active military duty when
two men were detailed to guard the Armory each night as a precautionary
measure. Privates Jack Early and William C. Chamberlain,

10th Battalion Staff, Virginia State Guard, poses for a portrait in
March, 1945.

Jr., first performed this duty on the night of December 10,
1941.[12] This assignment, coming close on the heels of Pearl Harbor,
was shortly followed by a call for a nine-man, twenty-four hour
guard of the University's Rouss Physical Laboratory. The detail
came as a Christmas present to Company 103, for the duty was
initiated on December 25 and continued for approximately ten days
until a federal agency assumed the responsibility.[13] Local curiosity
as to the purpose of the guard was not relieved by the authorities,
nor has it been to date. It is now known, however, that “important
work on a high-speed centrifuge was done by J. W. Beams and
others at the University of Virginia” in connection with the research
in progress throughout the country on atomic energy.[14] It is also
known that fifty-seven University scientists received government
certificates of commendation for wartime research.[15] It is ironic to
note how close some laymen came to guessing the nature and importance
of the research, without realizing it, as is illustrated by
an article in The Daily Progress. After commenting on the “Beams
ultra high speed rotor,” the article concluded, “Lest some get the
impression that this amazing apparatus is responsible for the sentries
it should be explained that it is not an instrument of destruction,
but was built to aid medical researchers.”[16]

Beginning December 13, 1941, and continuing through many
months of 1942 three members of Company 103 served with men
from the other companies of the 10th Battalion in maintaining a
twenty-four hour guard over the strategic highway bridge spanning
the Rappahannock between Fredericksburg and Falmouth. The
men who volunteered for this critically important mission to protect
the flow of arterial traffic of military convoys and war goods over
U. S. Route One were John M. Henshaw, Charles L. Ryalls, and
Junius T. Sutton. They remember long and cold nights of lonely
service.

The same year found the company maintaining its efficiency while
performing rather routine duty. During a March blackout forty-eight
members of the company were assigned the duty of guarding
the roads leading into the city and regulating traffic on them. The
only untoward incident occurred when an unidentified and elusive
car sped through both the V.P.F. and state police cordons at seventy
miles per hour. City Manager Seth Burnley stated that all
participants in the blackout “knew their duties and carried them
out efficiently and thoroughly.”[17] The Protective Force received another
commendation after the Federal inspection in April. Major
W. J. Sutton, of Third Corps Area Headquarters, stated that he was
pleased with the personnel of both Company 103 and the 10th
Battalion.[18]

Summer was synonymous with training for the volunteers, as

June found ten men attending an intensive four-day training school
at Virginia Military Institute. Shortly thereafter fourteen men departed
for the Third Corps Area State Guard School at Garrett
Park, Maryland.[19] On July 21 it was announced in the Charlottesville
newspaper that the well-trained Protective Force, the organization
designed to prevent subversive activity, had returned its 1917
Enfield rifles to the Army but that the unit was “expecting” shotguns.
No sabotage occurred before August 6, when The Daily
Progress announced that Company 103 was armed with fifty-seven
shotguns and three submachineguns.[20] On August 7 the company
was called on to guard the wreckage of an Army bomber which
crashed in the Keswick area of the county. Aiding the police, the
guard mingled with the numerous spectators who broke through
the pathless forest to glimpse the wreckage. The duty of the Protective
Force became that of preventing souvenir hunters from disturbing
parts of the plane, which had been scattered over a wide
area.[21]

While the Marines, under General Alexander Archer Vandegrift,
were struggling to maintain their toe hold in the Solomons, the
Protective Force was bolstered by the organization of the Virginia
Reserve Militia. Popularly known as the Minute Men, the members
of the reserve unit were required to furnish their own arms and
uniforms, but in this outlay they had some financial aid from the
city and the county. They were not liable for service outside the
county. Edwin V. Copenhaver was the prime mover in organizing
the Albemarle County unit, which was designated Company 2.
The new company, made up of seventy men who were mustered in
on October 21, 1942, by Colonel Walker, was commanded by
Captain Hunter Perry. Concurrently with the organization of the
reserve unit in Albemarle, Randolph H. Perry was made a captain
in the V. P. F. and assigned to the 10th Battalion as Minute Man
coordinator, responsible for organizing and training fourteen companies
of the Virginia Reserve Militia in the battalion area.[22]

Drill, organizational problems, and commendations for a job
well done made up the local Protective Force pattern during the
remainder of the fall and winter. After a quarterly inspection of
the company in November, Colonel Walker witnessed a field problem
in which the unit was dispersed to repulse a mythical landing
of enemy troops.

The limelight fell on the 10th Battalion when Brigadier General
Edward E. Goodwyn, commander of the Virginia Protective Force,
commended the unit for being the only such organization in the
state which was at full strength during October. Changes in the
personnel of the battalion included the promotion of Louis J.
Matacia to captain with an assignment as adjutant when Walter

E. Fowler was inducted into Federal service. John Albert Payne,
of Company 103, became battalion sergeant major.[23]

Officers and non-commissioned officers from all units in the 10th
Battalion area gathered in Charlottesville in mid-February. In introducing
Governor Colgate W. Darden, Jr., to the group, Brigadier
General S. Gardner Waller, Adjutant General of Virginia, pointed
out that, as commander of the Virginia Protective Force and the
Virginia Reserve Militia, the executive had under his control more
troops than any previous Virginia governor. In his address the
Governor stated that, while an attack from abroad was still possible,
the principal responsibility of the militia was to deal with untoward
incidents in the Commonwealth. General Goodwyn described the
10th Battalion as the outstanding battalion in the Protective Force,
and he commended Company 103 on the attainment of a “superior”
rating in a recent inspection. After the meeting the state officials
observed a drill by Company 103, with the governor praising the
members “for the devotion to duty indicated by the perfection of
their drill.” The Daily Progress commented editorially, “Company
103's demonstration gave ample evidence that Virginia is prepared
with a trained and disciplined force of a sort whose very existence
should go far toward making its actual use unnecessary.” The
drill was all the more remarkable in the light of the fact that there
had been a turnover of almost one hundred per cent in the personnel
of the company since its inception.[24]

On February 19, 1943, a second company of Minute Men, representing
the city of Charlottesville, was mustered into the service by
Colonel Walker as Company 404. Forty-seven men were present
at the muster, in addition to three officers headed by Captain Gilbert
S. Campbell. Both Companies 2 and 404 of the Virginia Reserve
Militia were divided, by platoons and squads, into a geographical
breakdown, in order that small units could assemble in their respective
localities on short notice. The older of the two reserve
organizations, Company 2, celebrated its first anniversary with the
awarding of one-year service stripes to seventy-seven of its 138 members.[25]
Meanwhile Company 103 of the Virginia Protective Force
continued its record of successful inspections, when a Third Service
Command officer gave the unit a rating of “excellent,” stating that
he doubted if he would find a better company on his tour of
inspection.[26]

When the name Protective Force was changed to the more accurately
descriptive designation Virginia State Guard on February
15, 1944, the organization continued to function as before, with
the summer witnessing both training camps and competitive drills
for the members. In May, when five reserve companies gathered
at the Municipal Airport near Gordonsville, Company 404 came

away with second honors in the drill competition. In an August
assembly of the State Guard at the South River Picnic Grounds in
the Shenandoah National Park, Company 104 of Fredericksburg
bested Company 103.[27] Earlier, three members of the local company
had attended a Third Service Command school at Fort Eustis,
Virginia.[28] The climax to the summer's activities came in September,
when thirteen of the twenty-three Guard and Reserve units in
the 10th Battalion area assembled in Charlottesville's McIntire Park.
Company 24 of Culpeper topped the other reserve units in the competitive
drill.

The chief feature of the day's program was the solving of a military
problem by Company 103. The Virginia Guardsman described
the maneuver in vivid detail. “The problem was to bring in, dead
or alive, a dozen desperadoes hidden in the brush at the lower end
of the Lane High School football field, scene of the mobilization.
Proceeding North along the railroad track on the West side of the
field, one squad of Guardsmen, under the command of Sgt. Jesse
B. Wilson, reached the border of the undergrowth in which the outlaws
lay hidden. Simultaneously another squad commanded by
Sgt Sam [Sanford] Bradbury moved stealthily along the Eastern
side of the field, hidden by the orchard across the road from the field.
Shots, fired at unexpected intervals, from strategic points, threw the
criminals off guard so that when a smoke screen was laid by Sgt.
Wilson's detail from the windward side of the field, the two riot
squads were able to converge unobserved by their quarry, whose
bitter opposition was soon quelled by the superior tactics of the well-drilled
members of Company 103. Those few rioters who succeeded
in breaking through the cordon of Guardsmen, were quickly cut
down by expert gunfire and were brought in by the ambulance of
the Tenth Battalion Medical Unit, under the command of Lt. Harry
L. Smith, Jr., with Sgt. Walter [S.] Crenshaw as Executive Officer
and Sgt. Francis [V.] Riddick at the wheel. So deceptive was the
execution of this entire operation, that no one, not even the umpires,
could tell how it was done. In fact, an entirely different version
might be forthcoming from those members of Company 103 who
acted the part of the desperadoes, if Sgt. Bill [William B.] Trevillian
were to be asked, thus proving the advantage—or disadvantage,
as the case may be—of a smoke screen.”[29]

Near the close of the year organizational changes again affected
the personnel of the 10th Battalion. On November 15 it was announced
that Henry B. Goodloe, who had served as battalion executive
officer with the rank of major, had been promoted to lieutenant
colonel. He was transferred from the battalion soon thereafter to
the staff of General Goodwyn. Captain Grove was promoted to
the rank of major and became Colonel Walker's new executive officer.

Charles L. Wingfield replaced Grove as the commander of
Company 103. After four years only eighteen of the original members
of the company remained in the State Guard. Of these only
Sergeant Aubrey S. Hughes had a perfect drill-attendance record.
Nevertheless, the Charlottesville company always ranked high among
Guard units in attendance at drill.[30]

What was destined to be the last notable public gathering of the
local companies occurred on April 22, 1945, when the reserve units
participated in a statewide muster to commemorate the mustering
of the Virginia militia in pre-Revolutionary times. Nearly 8,000
officers and men gathered at various points throughout the state.[31]

At the 1945 annual meeting of the officers and non-commissioned
officers in the battalion area, which consisted of fourteen counties
and the cities therein, comprehending eighteen Virginia Reserve
Militia companies with a strength of over 2,000 officers and men
and four Virginia State Guard companies with a strength of about
250 officers and men, Governor Darden stated that he was exceedingly
grateful for the service the organization had rendered. Addressing
the assembled group in Charlottesville, the governor said,
“Although it has not been a spectacular type of service, it means
more when it is realized that I didn't have a living soul I could
have called on in the event of an attack or public disorder except
the two organizations. Governor Price did a good thing when
he organized the Virginia Protective Force.”[32]

An expansion of the local units occurred in 1945 when a headquarters
company for the 10th Battalion with a strength of approximately
sixty men was authorized. This company was commanded
by Captain Gilbert S. Campbell. It was mustered in on
November 2, 1945.[33] The same year saw a more realistic step when,
on September 26, quite soon after V-J Day, Company 404 of the
Virginia Reserve Militia was demobilized. The men voted to keep
the war baby alive in spirit by a yearly gathering.[34] Interest in both
the Reserve Militia and State Guard organizations had long tended
to dwindle with each victory of the United States armed forces.
With the victorious conclusion of the war, the necessity for the organization
diminished. Early in 1946, it was announced that all
members of the Virginia State Guard who did not desire to become
members of the National Guard would be relieved of duty June
30, 1946.[35]

The State Guard had one last fling during the period when a
possibility of a strike by the employees of the Virginia Electric
and Power Company alarmed the state. In order to avert the
strike, scheduled for April 1, 1946, Governor William M. Tuck
issued an order drafting the company's employees into the unorganized
state militia. Draft notices were served on the “VEPCO”

workers in Charlottesville by a special detail from Company 103.
Colonel Walker reported that only one worker made any apparent
display of displeasure on receipt of the notice. When it was announced
that company and union officials had reached an agreement
on their differences, Governor Tuck rescinded his draft order.[36]

The original decision to disband the State Guard as of June 30,
1946, was changed, but the Guard reverted to a semi-active status
and many of the officers and men parted company with the organization.
Colonel Walker was succeeded by Colonel Goodloe as 10th
Battalion commander on that date.[37] On April 3, 1947, the reorganized
Monticello Guard, with Captain Charles L. Mahanes
commanding and First Lieutenant Edward V. Walker, Jr., as executive
officer, was inspected for Federal recognition at the New Armory,
and it was announced that it was likely that the unit soon would
be taken into the National Guard.[38] With its role as wartime protector
of the State fulfilled, the State Guard was demobilized April
15, 1947. Thus it was that these home front defenders, who
performed a job of which no one could have said anything but
praise, turned back to the hands of the Monticello Guard the duty
of protecting the community. When called on to perform a task,
no matter how small or inconsequential, the members of the Virginia
State Guard and Virginia Reserve Militia had done well. The members
derived an even greater sense of satisfaction from the knowledge
that their long hours of drill and their high state of preparedness
afforded the state a sure source of protection during trying times.