The Sarsfield Grenadier Guards were a military company from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the nineteenth century, mustered on July 29, 1870, in

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

. They were named after the Irish Jacobite

Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan, ga, Pádraig Sáirseál, circa 1655 to 21 August 1693, was an Irish soldier, and leading figure in the Jacobite army during the 1689 to 1691 Williamite War in Ireland. Born into a wealthy Catholic famil ...

. Its tradition is continued in Company B of the

184th Infantry Regiment The 184th Infantry Regiment (''Second California'') is an infantry regiment of the United States Army consisting of soldiers from the California Army National Guard. Only the regiment's 1st Battalion remains an active military unit. The battali ...

Formation

The Guards were mustered on July 29, 1870, as part of the

California National Guard The California National Guard is part of the National Guard of the United States, a dual federal-state military reserve force. The CA National Guard has three components: the CA Army National Guard, CA Air National Guard, and CA State Guard. ...

, with 33 men sworn in led by three officers - Captain W. H. Ashton, Jr., 1st Lieutenant Charles Brady and 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Nolan. Ashton left in 1870 and was replaced by Captain Henry Johnson, who was succeeded by Henry Lewis on March 16, 1871. By tradition officers of the Grenadier Guards were elected by the men, a practice that continued into the 20th century. The Guards were named after

Patrick Sarsfield Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan, ga, Pádraig Sáirseál, circa 1655 to 21 August 1693, was an Irish soldier, and leading figure in the Jacobite army during the 1689 to 1691 Williamite War in Ireland. Born into a wealthy Catholic famil ...

, and despite a lack of equipment and uniforms entered active service immediately. Members were mainly Irish or of Irish descent.{{cite journal, last=Michael, first=Rodriquez, date=November 2008, journal=Grizzly, volume=3, issue=11, url=http://www.calguard.ca.gov/publicaffairs/Documents/GrizzlyMagazines/24oct_Nov_Grizzly.pdf, title = Grizzly Magazine

Assignment

The Guards were assigned as Company G of the

4th California Infantry The 4th California Infantry was a volunteer infantry regiment recruited from northern California during the American Civil War. It was organized at Sacramento, Placerville, and Auburn in September and October 1861. 4th California Regiment of Inf ...

on February 19, 1872, and when the 4th was disbanded on March 31, 1877, the Guards were transferred to the 1st Infantry Battalion, 4th Brigade. On March 19, 1880, they became part of the 1st Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade. On December 7, 1895, the 4th Brigade was broken up, reducing the number of brigades in California to three, and the Guards became Company G of the 11th Battalion, 3rd Brigade.

Activities

The Guards acted as an escort for President

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

on his visit to

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

in 1891, and also acted as an escort on

Grand Army of the Republic The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Il ...

memorial day in 1892. During the railway strikes of 1894 the Guards were deployed to keep the peace, and after the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

they were deployed on fire suppression and rescue duties. The Guards served on the Mexican border from June 27, 1916, to April 9, 1917, where after the entry of the United States into

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

they were deployed in Europe.

References

Military history of California Irish regiments of the United States Army