With the coming of the Martian Invasion of the United
States, a Patriotic fervor swept the
country. When the call for volunteers to
join the Army was placed, men of all ages and backgrounds rushed to join and
fight the Martian Invader. In the early
1900s America
was still a mostly rural Nation; but the enlistment centers were located in the
cities. Not everyone who wanted to join
up could afford the trip “to the Big City”
so States began to recruit for local Militias.
These Militias were designed to get men organized and trained and to
supplement the formal Army units when the fight came to the State.
Northern Michigan and the Upper
Peninsula were no exceptions.
The Lumbermen and Miners there joined the Michigan State Militia and
received their Military training at Camp
Grayling. Because of the distances involved and the
crush of volunteers to the regular Army, there were not enough of the 1906
pattern uniforms to go around. To get
the men outfitted quickly the uniforms issued to this Militia were of the 1880
pattern last worn at Fort Mackinaw. When first publicly seen, the Michigan
Militia became known (rather disparagingly) as “The Mothball Militia”.
Hopping the rails and heading south, the unit found itself
outside Detroit. Near the rail yards a number of Baldwin Mark
II tanks were found awaiting scrapping.
Using the ingenuity and skills gleaned through their hard mining and
timber jobs, the men soon repaired and repainted these tanks and they traveled
with the Infantrymen to the front lines.
Seeing hard fighting near the Ohio-Michigan border the unit
took part in “The Frenchtown Campaign”.
Because of their determined resistance to the Martian attack on the town
of Monroe the unit was officially
renamed the “24th Michigan”,
a name that brought back memories of the famous State Civil War Regiment.
During “The Battle of the Temperance Crossroads” the 24th
Michigan not only held the line
when regular Army units fled, but mounted a counter-attack on the Martians,
destroying one of their Power Nodes. It
was after this performance the 24th shed the name “Mothball Militia”
and began to be called by a name once earned by their Fathers and Grandfathers
in battle during the Civil War.
They became “The Iron Brigade”.
