Home Guard (Unionist)

In the American Civil War the Home Guard or Home Guards were local militia raised from Union loyalists.

In Missouri after the start of the Civil War there were several competing organizations attempting to either take the state out of the Union or keep the state within it. Home Guard companies and regiments were raised by Union supporters, particularly German-Americans to oppose the secessionist paramilitary Minutemen, secessionist elements in the official Missouri Volunteer Militia and eventually the secessionist Missouri State Guard. Many of the Home Guard regiments in the St. Louis area were raised from pre-existing Wide Awakes, a Republican Party organization established during the 1860 election, and from members of the German Turnverein cultural organization.

St. Louis Unionists were mustered into Federal service in April 1861. Five regiments were designated the 1st-5th Missouri Volunteers and five additional regiments were created as the United States Reserve Corps. The second group were commonly referred to as the (St. Louis) Home Guard, and their creation was criticized as these regiments exceeded the requirement for Missouri volunteers under the Militia Act of 1792. During the Price-Harney Truce Governor Claiborne Jackson and Missouri State Guard commander Major General Sterling Price demanded that the 1st-5th U.S.R.C. be disbanded as illegal organizations. (These regiments continued to serve though the Missouri Secession Crisis, later being converted into three-year regiments.)

Once actual hostilities began in the state in June 1861, Union loyalists as Home Guard units in areas outside of St. Louis were organized and mobilized by Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon to oppose Sterling Price's Missouri State Guard which was forming at the same time. One of these units, the Benton County Home Guards, was defeated by a battalion of Missouri State Guards at the Battle of Cole Camp.

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