The Detroit Light Guard


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Let the Drum Beat


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The history of the volunteer militia in Detroit is rich with heroic figures, tales of leadership, bravery, and camaraderie. Author Stanley Solvick provides a fascinating chronicle of the origins and development of Detroit's Light Guard. From their beginnings in Anglo-Saxon England, citizen-soldiers have served in defense of their communities. In the New World, early settlements, far from the mother country, utilized citizen-soldiers drawn from their own population to supplement the small forces of regular troops. Detroit's oldest militia unit, under the leadership of the city's founder, Antoine de la Mathe Cadillac, safeguarded the riverfront community from the area's Indian population. By 1830, a permanent volunteer militia had been organized in the region. Author Solvick details the Guards' origins, tracing their transformation from Brady's Guards to the Light Guard, their involvement in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, the two World Wars, and their progression into the Space Age. In addition to encountering a number of individuals who shaped and guided the Light Guard in its evolution, readers will come across many whose names have become commonplace in present-day Detroit: Colonel Augustus B. Woodward and Governor Lewis B. Cass. Let the Drum Beat celebrates the Light Guard's tradition of service to the city of Detroit, the state, and the nation and provides a colorful new chapter to the rich history of the region.










Father Abraham's Children


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Among the episodes recounted with a wealth of colorful detail are: Michigan's participationin the Underground Railroad; the strange tale of Sarah Emma Edmonds, alias Private Franklin Thompson; the ill-fated strategy that led to the slaughter at the Crater; an odyssey of escape from Danville and from Libby Prison; the bizarre plot of the Confederates to capture a Federal sloop-of-war on Lake Erie; the Michigan Cavalry Brigade's exploits under the picturesque George Custer; the chance encounter with a Michigan soldier that brought death to the gallant Jeb Stuart; impressions and description of camp life and the ordinary routine of a soldier from the diary of Private Frank Lane; the disaster of the First Michigan at Bull Run; the story of Michigan's medical services and the origin of Harper Hospital; the Detroit Riot of 1863; and the nightmare explosion of the steamer Sultana with a death toll of over 1,200 soldiers on their way home from Confederate prisons.







Historical Collections


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