Customer Reviews:
 The Detroit Light Guard's history May 23, 2000
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Dr. Slovick has written a useful chronicle of Michigan's oldest military unit. As a former member of A Company, the original Light Guard unit, I enjoyed the book. The history is at it's most exciting in the 19th century, when the Light Guard was among the Michigan units that were first to answer Lincoln's call for volunteers from the west. From the first Bull Run, where more Light Guard bodies were found around Stonewall Jackson's position than from any other unit, to the end of hostilities, they were in the thick of the fight. The Spanish-American War, the expedition to catch Pancho Villa, and World War I (the mobilization came two days after returning from Mexico) provide interesting chapters. The rest of the book is anticlimax, as the Light Guard, used as a training unit after being called up, originally for one year in 1940, saw no action in World War II. Detroit natives will find the intertwining of city history with the story to be of interest, from pictures of the old armory on Brush near downtown to the call-up for the '67 riots. There is some irony in the fact that this book was written a couple of years before the Light Guard, after not being called up for Desert Storm, was reorganized. Instead of infantry, the unit, with it's battle streamers dating back to the Mexican War, is now a forward support unit. -Lloyd A. Conway
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