This is at least the second case related to the Capitol riots where defendants are alleged to have ties to military-style training. And the mentions of training camps have dotted some of the early court records charging paramilitary-linked rioters with federal crimes. Paramilitary groups have become a major focus of investigators as they work toward understanding why attendees of the Trump rally were armed and wore body armor, and how groups of extremists may have coordinated before the siege. The Oath Keepers generally believe the federal government has been corrupted and that former military and police can defend the Constitution as a self-styled militia, according to court records. The Justice Department indicted Thomas Caldwell of Virginia and Jessica Watkins and Donovan Crowl of Ohio on Wednesday, alleging that the three are affiliated with the Oath Keepers, a right-wing extremist group, and that Watkins discussed a basic training camp in Ohio and Crowl attended training in North Carolina before January 6. The Cleveland Grays also operate a museum, the Cleveland Gray's Armory Museum, in Cleveland, Ohio.A new federal criminal indictment against three alleged insurrectionists who plotted their trip to Washington, DC, reveals more about their preparations than was previously known, including their discussing or attending training camps. As of 2008, the unit continues to exist, serving as an educational and philanthropic organization. In this conflict, the unit's members formed the basis of the 148 th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.įollowing World War I, the Grays, once again, became a social group. During World War I, the Grays saw their last service as a cohesive fighting unit. They became Company F of the 3 rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. A handful of Grays' members also volunteered for duty against Pancho Villa in Mexico during 1916. The men never saw combat, as the war ended before they had completed their training. With the Spanish-American War's outbreak in 1898, 225 Grays' members formed the nucleus of Companies A, B, and C of the 1 st Battalion of Engineers in the Ohio National Guard. It participated in all major battles in the war's Eastern Theater.įollowing the Civil War, the Grays became a social organization, with its members participating in balls and parades. The Grays served admirably during this conflict. This was just four days after President Lincoln's call for volunteers. Governor Dennison dispatched these regiments to Washington, DC, to protect the nation's capital, on April 19, 1861. It served as part of the first two Ohio infantry regiments organized for the war, becoming Company E of the 1 st Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment. This unit, numbering approximately forty-five men, quickly traveled to Columbus, answering the governor's call. Among these units were the Cleveland Grays. ![]() These units existed primarily to march in parades and to provide young men with something to do in their spare time. While the state militia system had deteriorated, numerous communities had maintained units. Despite the lack of equipment, Dennison encouraged Ohio communities to revive the militia system and to form units that they would send to Columbus, the state capital. ![]() The two men discovered some old muskets, some useless cannons and other things that were of little value. In April 1861, following President Abraham Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand volunteers to end the South's rebellion, Dennison dispatched George McClellan and Jacob Cox to the state arsenal in Columbus to investigate the guns and other supplies that Ohio had on hand to help equip the militia units. With Great Britain's departure from Ohio and the declining threat from American Indians, Ohio's citizens and their government had felt little need to support this system strongly for the state's defense. The Ohio militia system had been in decline since the end of the War of 1812. In the case of Ohio, Governor William Dennison turned to the Ohio militia to provide the federal government with necessary troops. This changed with the American Civil War's outbreak in 1861.Īt the start of the American Civil War, both the Union and the Confederacy had to rely on individual states to supply the armed forces with men and supplies. ![]() For the first twenty-four years of the organization's existence, its members saw no formal military duty. The Cleveland Grays is the longest operating volunteer militia unit in Ohio's history.įounded in 1837, the Grays initially helped Cleveland officials in deterring crime.
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