Kentucky Guard

Retired Guardsman donates missing KY National Guard magazines
February 16, 2024 — In January 2024, a retired public affairs officer donated forgotten pieces of Kentucky’s military history to the Kentucky National Guard Public Affairs Office in Frankfort. Retired Army Col. Tom Little was preparing his belongings for a move into a new home when he came across his old military documents. Among those documents were copies of previously published issues of The Kentucky Guardsmen and The Bluegrass Guard. These printed newsletters were under his responsibility when he served as the commander of the 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment (MPAD) during the 1970s and 1980s... MORE

Letters from Bataan: A Kentucky POW’s letters found after 75 years
April 13, 2023 — This month marks 81 years since the Bataan Death March in the Bataan Peninsula during World War II. Almost every member of the military can tell you the power of receiving mail during times of training; it’s hard to remember but many years ago, letter writing was the only form of communication while in basic training and overseas deployments for centuries before the days of cell phones and the internet. Finding the letters, as a historian, is also very vital to putting together the story of how our troops lived while at training. The author tends to write a detailed picture of their day-to-day life, how they spent their training, who was with them, and how they spent their off time... MORE

Kentucky Army National Guard Sgt. Jennings Bryan Scanlon from the Service Record, World War I and II in an undated photo album. Scanlon mobilized to the Philippine Islands with the 192nd Tank Battalion shortly before World War II began in the Pacific and was captured as part of the Bataan Death March. Scanlon died shortly after in a POW Camp. (Photo courtesy of the Harrodsburg, Ky. veterans' community).

Time capsule left by decorated Kentucky Guard MP unit found in Fort McCoy barracks nearly two decades after unit left for Operation Iraqi Freedom
March 20, 2023 — In November 2004, the 617th Military Police Company of the Kentucky National Guard was one of many military units completing their mobilization at Fort McCoy for deployment. It was in that month the unit wrapped up their training at Wisconsin’s only Army installation and prepared to head off to Iraq for a year deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Before they left, however, some members of the unit decided they'd put together a “time capsule” of sorts in a plastic drawer they got from the Fort McCoy Exchange, put some mementos in it, and stash it away in the walls of one of the hundreds of barracks on the installation’s cantonment area... MORE

Soldiers with the Kentucky National Guard’s 617th Military Police Company are shown ikn November 2004 at Fort McCoy, Wis. The unit, before they were deployed to Iraq, were mobilized at Fort McCoy and had left a time capsule in a barracks at McCoy that was discovered in late 2022 by contractors working on Fort McCoy barracks. The company placed the makeshift time capsule in the walls of the barracks thinking they’d come back to it after their deployment completed in 2005 but they forgot about it. The 617th completed their mobilization at Fort McCoy from October to November 2004 and then their demobilization a year later. The unit also is one of the most decorated combat National Guard military police units after completing that deployment. (Contributed photo)

The Mystery of “Old Long Tom” Kentucky’s Mexican-American War Trophy
April 18, 2022 — The story of “Old Long Tom” and his brother Kentucky’s Mexican-American War Trophies is an interesting one, which has never been fully told. What happened to “Tom” and his brother after they were removed from the State Arsenal by Confederate forces in the fall of 1862, is still a mystery waiting to be discovered... MORE

6th U.S. Infantry, The Battle of Cerro Gordo, Mexico, April 18, 1847

KY Native Charles Young Posthumously Promoted to BG by U.S. Army
February 3, 2022 — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced that the U.S. Department of Defense has approved the posthumous honorary promotion of U.S. Army Col. Charles Young to Brigadier General on Feb. 1, 2022. In February 2020, Gov. Beshear recognized the promotion of Young on the state level and submitted a letter to President Joe Biden to have the honorary promotion be instated on a federal level. ... MORE

Photograph shows Major Charles Young (1864?-1922)who served in the u.S. Army and was the third African American to graduate from West Point and first to become a colonel. Major Young was awarded the Spingarn Medal in March 1916 for his work in Liberia. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2013 and 2015)

Brigadier General Jackson Morris, 29th Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky, 1920-1923.
February 1, 2022 — Jackson Morris, lawyer, politician, sportsman and soldier was born February 1st, 1875, at Crockettsville, Breathitt County, Kentucky. One of seven children born to Nacy W. and Louise Spicer Morris. The Morris family was of the Baptist Church faith, which he followed throughout his life. As a teenager, he became a Mason. He was fraternally affiliated with Pineville Lodge, A. F. and A. M.; Pineville Chapter, R. A. M.; London Commandery, K. T.; Kosair Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Louisville, and the Lodge of Odd Fellows at Frankfort... MORE

Jackson Morris while serving in World War I.

George Lee McClain, Adjutant General of Kentucky 1935-1939
January 23, 2022 — The thirty-fourth Adjutant General of Kentucky was George Lee McClain, born on January 23, 1895, at Bloomfield, Nelson County, Kentucky. George was the only son of William Thomas and Nina Cochrane McClain. By 1900, his father had moved the family to Bardstown, where young George received his initial education in the local schools... MORE

Isaac Shelby – Placing the Commonwealth and the Kentucky Militia on a Strong Footing
January 4, 2022 — Isaac Shelby served as the first and fifth Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Kentucky. Shelby was the right man at the right time, his political insight and his participation and military leadership in America’s Colonial Wars was of paramount importance in the organization and development of the Commonwealth and her militia. Before his settling in Kentucky, he had served in the state legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina. He also served as a soldier in Lord Dunmore’s War, the American Revolutionary War, and as Governor of Kentucky would serve in the War of 1812. Governor Shelby led Kentucky Troops in the Battle of the Thames, an action that would end hostilities in the Old Northwest Territory during the War of 1812. For his gallantry at the Battle of the Thames he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in March 1818. ... MORE

Charge of the Forlorn Hope
October 6, 2021 — The “Charge of the Forlorn Hope” during the Battle of the Thames on November 5, 1813, was one of the most heroic events in the annals of Kentucky’s Military History, in which twenty Kentuckians rode in the face of an enemy to certain death, to attract their fire, so that their companions might make an advantageous assault... MORE

1840
Lithograph

stone: 37.15 × 62.23 cm (14 5/8 × 24 1/2 in.)
Mabel Brady Garvan Collection
1946.9.356
Geography:
Made in United States
Status:
Not on view
Culture:
American
Period:
19th century
Classification:
Works on Paper - Prints
Provenance:
Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, to 1946; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.

Daniel Weisiger Lindsey, A Gentleman and Patriot
August 6, 2021 — Kentucky’s Ninth Adjutant General, 1864 – 1867... MORE

John Brown's raid and the establishment of the Kentucky State Guard
October 14, 2020 — John Brown's raid was an effort by abolitionist John Brown and his compatriots to initiate an armed slave revolt in October 1859, by taking over the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va... MORE

Meet Ky’s 32nd Adjutant General, 1927-1931
May 28, 2020 — William Henry Jones, Jr., Kentucky’s 32nd Adjutant General, was born May 25, 1895, in the community of Freedom, where his parents made their life together... MORE

William Henry Jones, Jr.

Kentucky’s 32nd Adjutant General, 1927-1931

Kentucky Guard's First Female Chaplain in 25 years
February 21, 2014 — It has been more than 25 years since a female has served as a chaplain in the Kentucky Guard. A fact White says contributes to the idea that things happen for a reason... MORE

White is the first female chaplain with the Kentucky Guard in 25 years.

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