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United States Gendarmerie
The United States Gendarmerie is the domestic law enforcement branch of the United States military placed under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department. Its area of responsibility includes smaller towns, rural and suburban areas, while civilian law enforcement agencies are largely exclusive to cities. Because of its military status, the Gendarmerie also fulfills a range of military and defense missions. The Gendarmes have a cybercrime division. The force has a strength of more than 100,000 personnel, as of 2019. The Gendarmerie has come into confrontation with state and local governments over the years, as the agency is required to enforce Federal Laws and adhere to the Constitution above often unconstitutional state laws.
History
Early Years
The Gendarmerie is the direct descendant of the United States Marshals, an institution that lasted from the ratification of the constitution until Reconstruction, and to a lesser extent the short-lived Secret Service, which was created in 1865 to combat a wave of counterfeiting in the United States. During the 1870s the US Army's occupation of the former states of the Confederacy was forcing the War Department to take on civilian law enforcement responsibilities that the Army was never designed for, and as a result numerous neo-Confederate groups were able to continue operating despite various powers given to the military to contain them. In 1878 on the advice of former Minister to France Elihu B. Washburne, then Senator James G. Blaine introduced the Posse Comitatus Act to create a military branch purely for civilian law enforcement. Opposition to the act came largely from the remnant Democratic party and conservative anti-Reconstruction Republicans, but was ultimately passed and signed by President Schuyler Colfax, establishing the United States Gendarmerie under the Justice Department. The first Chief of Staff of the Gendarmerie was Allan Pinkerton.
The early days of the Gendarmerie saw the service routinely come into conflict with the US Army, despite General William T. Sherman's initial support for the agency. General Allan Pinkerton secured the reputation of the Gendarmerie through the creation of its investigating arm, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), which successfully identified neo-Confederate terrorist groups, most famously leading to the arrest of the membership of the White League. By 1881 the Gendarmerie had subsumed all responsibilities of Reconstruction previously given to the US Army. By the time Texas was readmitted to the Union in 1896, the Gendarms had largely shifted to a primarily civil law enforcement roll held by the US Marshals and to a lesser extent the Secret Service.
20th Century
The 20th Century saw the Gendarms engage in occasional clashes with local governments in the Interior with large populations of former southern rebels who had left during the Great Migration, peaking with the Valentine Rising of 1914 where over 50,000 Gendarms assisted by the US Army were deployed to put down a neo-Confederate uprising that began in Arizona.
After the First World War, the Gendarms played a major role in the Wilson-Bayou Affair, wherein a secret society of the Ku Klux Klan was uncovered in the city of New Orleans that had attempted to stage a terrorist attack against Republican presidential candidate Charles Curtis. The resultant discovery of membership records revealed former Washington University chancellor, and People's Party candidate Woodrow Wilson was a grand wizard of the KKK. Wilson's arrest shortly before he was expected to receive his party's nomination would be the most high profile political arrest of the 20th Century.
Contrary to popular perception, the Gendarms did not play a major roll in Patton's Rebellion (1940-1942). While initially the Gendarms were deployed to put down riots and civil unrest following the 1940 elections, they were relieved by National Guard units almost immediately after Brigadier General Patton launched his assault on Fort
Fort Leavenworth. It was only after the bulk of the rebels had been put down that the Gendarms were sent in to occupy the interior once again. However, many Gendarms did transfer to the Army and remained even through the end of the war where they played a critical roll in Denazification.
History
Early Years
The Gendarmerie is the direct descendant of the United States Marshals, an institution that lasted from the ratification of the constitution until Reconstruction, and to a lesser extent the short-lived Secret Service, which was created in 1865 to combat a wave of counterfeiting in the United States. During the 1870s the US Army's occupation of the former states of the Confederacy was forcing the War Department to take on civilian law enforcement responsibilities that the Army was never designed for, and as a result numerous neo-Confederate groups were able to continue operating despite various powers given to the military to contain them. In 1878 on the advice of former Minister to France Elihu B. Washburne, then Senator James G. Blaine introduced the Posse Comitatus Act to create a military branch purely for civilian law enforcement. Opposition to the act came largely from the remnant Democratic party and conservative anti-Reconstruction Republicans, but was ultimately passed and signed by President Schuyler Colfax, establishing the United States Gendarmerie under the Justice Department. The first Chief of Staff of the Gendarmerie was Allan Pinkerton.
The early days of the Gendarmerie saw the service routinely come into conflict with the US Army, despite General William T. Sherman's initial support for the agency. General Allan Pinkerton secured the reputation of the Gendarmerie through the creation of its investigating arm, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), which successfully identified neo-Confederate terrorist groups, most famously leading to the arrest of the membership of the White League. By 1881 the Gendarmerie had subsumed all responsibilities of Reconstruction previously given to the US Army. By the time Texas was readmitted to the Union in 1896, the Gendarms had largely shifted to a primarily civil law enforcement roll held by the US Marshals and to a lesser extent the Secret Service.
20th Century
The 20th Century saw the Gendarms engage in occasional clashes with local governments in the Interior with large populations of former southern rebels who had left during the Great Migration, peaking with the Valentine Rising of 1914 where over 50,000 Gendarms assisted by the US Army were deployed to put down a neo-Confederate uprising that began in Arizona.
After the First World War, the Gendarms played a major role in the Wilson-Bayou Affair, wherein a secret society of the Ku Klux Klan was uncovered in the city of New Orleans that had attempted to stage a terrorist attack against Republican presidential candidate Charles Curtis. The resultant discovery of membership records revealed former Washington University chancellor, and People's Party candidate Woodrow Wilson was a grand wizard of the KKK. Wilson's arrest shortly before he was expected to receive his party's nomination would be the most high profile political arrest of the 20th Century.
Contrary to popular perception, the Gendarms did not play a major roll in Patton's Rebellion (1940-1942). While initially the Gendarms were deployed to put down riots and civil unrest following the 1940 elections, they were relieved by National Guard units almost immediately after Brigadier General Patton launched his assault on Fort
Fort Leavenworth. It was only after the bulk of the rebels had been put down that the Gendarms were sent in to occupy the interior once again. However, many Gendarms did transfer to the Army and remained even through the end of the war where they played a critical roll in Denazification.
- Sean McKnight
- Word Count: 680