SCSG History

Settlement

Traditions of the South Carolina State Guard hale back to the earliest settlement of the Carolina coast. The original defensive force in South Carolina was organized in 1670 as the First Provincial Militia, formed at the founding of Charles Towne on Albemarle Point as a defense against Indians and a possible Spanish invasion. Shortly after, a Spanish expedition dispatched to invade the English settlement returned to St. Augustine when they saw the extent of defensive preparations the new colony had erected. Conflict with the Westoes, a local Native American tribe, was also quickly ended when they encountered the determined new soldiers.

In the South Carolina early history, there were two militias; the Militia and the Volunteer Militia. The Militia was an enrolled force which was a vast, unorganized manpower pool. Virtually ever man in the state aged 18 to 60 years was a member of the Militia. The Volunteer Militia was legally part of the enrolled Militia, and formed units, met and drilled on a regular basis. These citizen-soldiers were considered the "skilled" militia and were the ones the colony would mobilize first if needed. These men were armed, uniformed, and equipped by the colonial government on the model of the British Militia. 

The American Revolution

Early on the morning of September 15, 1775, Charles Town residents awoke to find the South Carolina Militia holding Fort Johnson, which had been a British stronghold the day before. The Militia, acting upon the orders of the S.C. Committee of Safety, had crossed the harbor during the night and captured the contingent of British soldiers in the fort.  South Carolina had committed itself to the American Revolution. Colonel Moultrie, commander of the force, took down the British flag and chose to raise a new flag with the indigo blue uniform of the First and Second Regiments as the background color. He then selected the Regiment's silver crescent worn of the front of their caps to be placed upon the blue. After Moultrie's historic defense of a palmetto log fort known as Fort Sullivan, the palmetto tree was added to that earlier banner, thereby creating the South Carolina state flag as we know it today.

That same year, the First South Carolina Regiment was organized by volunteers from the Militia. Many members of this unit fought at the Revolutionary War on their own soil at the battles of Kings Mountain (1780) and Cowpens (1781). Both victories were considered to be major turning points in America's fight for independence. Black powder smoke rolled across Sullivan's Island, Stono Ferry, Charleston, Camden, Blackstocks and many other battlefields; over 214 skirmishes and battles were fought in every corner of state. None of the colonies suffered more military actions in the conflict than South Carolina. The brutality of the British forces kept the numbers volunteering for the S.C. Militia high, and in the lead were men such as Thomas Sumter, Francis Marion, Andrew Pickens, Christopher Gadsden, and Pierce Butler. The Militia continued to win ground, and British surrendered July 1782. However, fighting continued in South Carolina until Charles Towne was liberated in December. After almost eight years of grueling war, peace was finally declared on April 19, 1783. The Militias were disbanded and sent home.

The Civil War and Reconstruction

South Carolina seceded from the Union on December, 1860, and was followed quickly by the remainder of the Southern States. Less than six months later, on April 12 1861, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. State militias were quickly assembled and provided most of the early troops for both Union and Confederate armies. Soon after, in 1862, South Carolina formed six regiments of troops for internal security. In 1863, the Confederate government announced what soon became one of its most unpopular initiatives: the induction of state militias and other forms of state troops into its regular armies. Although the individual governors of the Southern States were not happy with the order, the vast majority complied. At the end of the war in April 1865, the volunteer soldiers returned home, many to uncertain conditions, and most Militias were disbanded. South Carolina had contributed approximately 60,000 of her sons to the Confederate cause, and of those about 20,000 never returned home.

During reconstruction, South Carolina Governor Orr attempted to create a militia to suppress run-away crime in the state but was refused by the Federal Government. Undaunted, South Carolina ratified a new state Constitution on April 16, 1868, which contained an article which gave the voters the right to elect their Adjutant General by popular vote. (This process is still followed to this day with South Carolina being the only state in the United States that elects it's Adjutant General.) Because there was in fact no militia to lead, the title was officially called the Adjutant and Inspector General.

The question of state militia was finally resolved by the Dick Act of 1903, which differentiated between the organized militia and the unorganized militia by granting Federal recognition to the land forces of the organized militia and designating them as the National Guard. It stipulated that service was no longer than nine months and overseas assignments were forbidden. In 1908, this legislation was amended, effectively lifting sanctions on length and location of federal service. Further changes came with the National Defense Act of June 3, 1916. The National Guard was officially designated the nation’s second line of defense giving it dual status as both a state and Federal force. Consequently, National Guard soldiers were required to swear two oaths of allegiance, one to their state the other to the federal government.

World War I

Soon after the start of World War I, the National Guard was called into service.  Extended wartime duty of the National Guardsmen left most states with no militia for traditional state missions. The Federal government made several additional attempts to assist State Guard programs by passing the Home Guard Act of 1917. Through this piece of legislation, arms, equipment, and uniforms were furnished to the state militia by the federal government, when available. The composition of World War I State Guard units routinely consisted of retired or prior service personnel, many former National Guardsmen, or those who for one reason or another were ineligible for federal service. The reliability and efficiency of these State Guard units varied, depending on location, local and state government support.

States now had effective and centralized state military forces that provided invaluable assistance during the Spanish Influenza outbreak in 1918, supplying much needed manpower, transportation, and medical assets for this emergency. Approximately twenty seven states created State Guard units representing an additional 79,000 soldiers for strictly state duty. While presence of State Guard units provided a calming effect to the local populace, other than labor strikes and associated local contingencies, no incidents required large scale domestic military intervention by the State Guard. After the war, as the nation turned its attention to prosperity and internal affairs, State Guard units were mostly disbanded.

World War II

Upon America’s entry into World War II, National Guard units were again called into federal service in late 1940, with the first peacetime draft in American history.  State Governors raised concerns that they had been stripped of their state forces. Congress responded by passing the State Guard Act on October 21, 1940. It clarified the constitutionality of organizing State Guard forces as replacements for the federalized National Guard and permitted access to Federal supplies and equipment, when available. State Guard possession and use of Federal small arms and related equipment placed State Guards under scrutiny of the U.S. Army, thus State Guard units were subject to periodic inspections. At first, these inspections caused consternation between state forces and their Federal inspectors.  As the war progressed, these tensions subsided and the two sides grew increasingly interactive and cooperative, as the nine Service Area Commands within the United States incorporated State Guards into their defense plans, and furnished training programs specifically designed for these replacement National Guard units.

Missions outlined for World War II State Guard forces mirrored those of the National Guard and included performing the peacetime duties such as response to natural and manmade disasters. State Guards performed full time guard duty in coastal regions and other vital areas, trained for combat to ensure interoperability with federal troops in the event of an invasion and performed internal security functions. In South Carolina, the state legislature passed an act establishing the South Carolina Defense Force, signed into law by Governor Burnet R. Maybank on March 21, 1941. The uniform was initially Confederate Gray.  This was changed to standard GI Olive Drab by 1943. According to the Adjutant General's report of July 2, 1941, of the authorized strength of 518 officers and 6,035 enlisted men, there were 191 officers and 3,060 enlisted men enrolled as of June 30^th of that year. Among the officers was 2LT J. Strom Thurmond of Company L (Edgefield), 3d Battalion, 1st Regiment.

The mission of the SCDF, renamed the South Carolina State Guard (SCSG) in January 1944, was to defend against invasion along the South Carolina coast and assist local officials in providing internal security, including search and rescue. While invasion by sea was unlikely there was a fear that the Germans might land forces by submarine and it was the job of the SCDF to hold until troops could be brought in from Fort Jackson. Occasionally they were called out to provide security for crashed aircraft or after natural or man made disasters. As National Guard units returned to state service after World War II, interest in State Guards effectively vanished. The last known war time unit in South Carolina, Company E (Greenville), 2d Battalion, 2d Regiment, was mustered out on August 8, 1947.

The Cold War

General interest in State Guard units (now known as State Defense Force, or SDF) waned from 1945 until early 1980. However, in Early 1980s, the U.S. Military created a national defense doctrine called Total Force, which dictated that all U.S. reserves, including National Guard, were to be immediately deployable. To have a reliable state defense forces, between 1980 and 1989 over 20 State Guards were re-established, with South Carolina reinstating its State Guard in 1981. In 1985, State Defense Force Association of the United States was formed to promote the role of state authorized and organized defense forces, state guards, or state military reserves, and to foster and encourage cooperation between the various state defense forces, the Department of Defense, the National Guard, the active armed forces and their reserves, other government agencies, and the general public.

Post September 11, 2001

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, several states utilized their SDFs for security and the State Guard of South Carolina answered the call. Twenty-eight members of the South Carolina State Guard 2BDE, worked at St. Paul's Chapel in New York City during Thanksgiving week to relieve volunteers so they could be with their families during the holidays. They performed a wide range of tasks, from handling security to handing out pillows and blankets to tired fire fighters and police officers needing a break. It was the first time the SCSG had been deployed outside of South Carolina since the Civil War.

Today, South Carolina State Guard missions include meeting domestic emergencies within the state, assist civil authorities in the preservation of order, guard and protect critical industrial installations and facilities, prevent or suppress subversive activities, and cooperate with federal military authorities. As National Guard units are mobilized for duty in the War on Terror, SDFs are charged with assuming control of state armories and Federal property and when directed, assist in the mobilization process. These assets include infrastructure site security, emergency operations center operations, search and rescue capabilities, medical, religious, legal, Weapons of Mass Destruction/Effects, and air assets. If you would like information on how you could be a part of this long tradition of the citizen-soldier, please visit our Recruiting section.