H-D Military Motorcycles

In 1916, the United States was embroiled in a conflict with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. A series of skirmishes left U.S. Army troops, under the leadership of General “Black Jack” Pershing, chasing Villa and his men along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Among their many means of transportation were Harley-Davidson motorcycles with machine guns mounted in the sidecars. The War Department soon ordered a dozen motorcycles directly from Harley-Davidson, and a decades-long partnership began.

With the strategic value of motorcycles proven to the military, the War Department relied heavily upon Harley-Davidson following the entry of the United States into World War I. In fact, the first American to enter Germany one day following the signing of the armistice was riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

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Older than the state itself, the first militia company to become an official part of the California National Guard was a militia company known as the First California Guard Light Artillery. Formed by the then military governor of California, Brig. Gen. Bennett Riley, the First California Guard was formed as an artillery company, but also drilled in the tactics of the infantry. At its formation, it consisted of only 41 members but had increased to 100 men by September of that year. By 1890, the First California Guard would become known as Company A, First Regiment of Light Battery, California National Guard.

California’s 1849 Constitution provided for both an “army and navy of this State” and the state’s first enactment of military law by the Legislature came in 1850, providing for the organization of the State’s militia and the election of an Adjutant General, defining his duties. The state’s militia force, under this early enactment, was partitioned into four divisions under four major-generals, with two brigades to a division, and a brigadier-general assigned to each, as well as a quartermaster general. The governor was the commander-in-chief, who could appoint two aides-de-camp with the rank of colonels of cavalry; but the legislature elected the major and brigadier-generals, one adjutant and one quartermaster general, with the rank of brigadier-general, all to be commissioned by the governor.

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