Spanish American War

National Guard units distinguished themselves in the Spanish-American War. The most famous unit of the war was a cavalry unit partly recruited from Texas, New Mexico and Arizona National Guardsmen, Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders".

The real importance of the Spanish-American War was not, however, in Cuba: it was in making the United States a power in the Far East. The U.S. Navy took the Philippines from Spain with little trouble, but the Filipinos wanted independence and the U.S. had to send troops to hold the islands.

Because most of the regular Army was in the Caribbean, three quarters of the first U.S. troops to fight in the Philippines were from the National Guard. They were the the first American troops to fight in Asia and the first to fight a foreign enemy who used classic guerilla tactics - tactics which would again be employed against U.S. troops in Vietnam more than 60 years later.

Problems during the Spanish-American War demonstrated that if the U.S. was to be an international power, its military was in need of reform. Many politicians and Army officers wanted a much larger full-time Army, but the country had never had a large regular Army in peacetime and was unwilling to pay for it. Further, states-rights advocates in Congress defeated plans for a totally Federal reserve force in favor of reforming the militia, or National Guard.

In 1903, a piece of landmark legislation opened the way for increased modernization of and Federal control over the National Guard. The law provided increased Federal funding, but in order to obtain it, National Guard units had to reach minimum strengths and be inspected by Regular Army officers. Guardsmen were required to attend 24 drills per year and five days of annual training, for which they received pay for the first time.

In 1916, another act was passed, guaranteeing the state militias' status as the Army's primary reserve force and requiring that all states rename their militia "National Guard". The National Defense Act of 1916 prescribed qualifications for National Guard officers and allowed them to attend U.S. Army schools; required that each National Guard unit would be inspected and recognized by the War Department; and ordered that National Guard units would be organized like regular Army units. The act also specified that Guardsmen would be paid not just for annual training, but also for their drills.