As was stated last week, Atty. C. E. Innman went last week to Jackson to make an effort to secure authority to raise a Company of State Militia in Calhoun county.  He succeeded in his mission and returned armed with full authority.

With the assistance of J. A. Ellard, R. Killingsworth, A. G. Hamilton and others, he is this week endeavoring to secure the signatures of a sufficient number of men in Calhoun county to form the company.

It will take 70 men to secure the company. If secured they will be mustered in here at Pittsboro Saturday night of this week. They will then return to their homes and not meet again until Aug. 5th, when they will assemble, be drilled at home for awhile and then be sent to some training camp for instruction.  They will be state troops, but will be under the orders of the United States.  After they are fully trained, they will go wherever the Federal Government wants them to go.  It is believed however that the state troops will be used to some extent anyway, here at home guarding the bridges, public buildings etc.

The pay will be $30.00 a month with board, clothes and doctor's bills. Any man from 18 to 45 years old can join if he is physically able.

Quite a number of the boys have already signed the papers and there are others.  It looks like the Company is a certainty.

Any man or boy, married or not, in Calhoun or adjoining counties, who desires to join this company, or who is interested and want to have the matter further explained to him will come out here Saturday night of this week.

Be sure to come if you are interested.

The Company of National Guard which Atty. Inman has been endeavoring to raise in Calhoun County appears now to be a certainty.

Sixty some odd men have already signed up for the company and enough others have announced their intentions of so doing to bring the number up to about 100. They can take as many as 150 however....

The young men of this county are waking up to the fact that every indication points toward the fact that they are going to be carried into this war, whether they want to or not and with this in mind, they are joining this company so they can all go together wherever they do go.  They feel like they will fare better under home officers elected by themselves from amongst themselves and that they will be better contented and cared for along with their neighbor boys and folks they have known all their lives than amongst a conscripted crowd gathered at random from one state and another and under officers who neither know or care anything about them.

Another point is this: From a standpoint of reason it looks like the boys who go out in this Company would have a better chance by far to avoid going to France than the ones who are conscripted. This company will be part of a new regiment of National Guard being organized in Mississippi. They are to take the places of the other two regiments of National Guard which Mississippi already has and which are well trained and service seasoned and ready to go to France.

The Government must have a large force to guard the Mexican border, they must keep a lot of men to guard the Mississippi levees, the railroad bridges, certain buildings, etc. This being true it sounds reasonable that the government would rather keep these new and untrained men for these positions and send on the men already trained to the battlefields.

Another thing: These are state troops, organized and provided for state use, except in cases of emergency. The Conscription law was drawn and passed with the fixed purpose of providing an army to send to France.

The first call on the draft will be about July 4th. It will call for ten thousand men from Mississippi. If all the counties were the same size, this would mean about 125 men from each county. Calhoun is a big county so it will call for at least 150 men from Calhoun. There are only 274 white unmarried men between 21 and 31 in Calhoun. Naturally, a lot of these are physically unable.  So it looks mightily like the physically able, unmarried man between the ages in Calhoun had just as well get ready to go.  This 150 will be on the first call for five hundred thousand. It is said that the government will call for two million men. If it does you can see where it will go.

The last call for this company will be on Saturday of this week. The Recruiting Officer will be here Saturday at Four o'clock in the afternoon to Muster them in. Afterwards the Company will elect officers.

If you want to join you MUST be here in person Saturday.

At a meeting held here last Saturday night at Pittsboro enough men of the County signed on to assure us a Company of National Guard in this County, but we will take other men who meet the requirements if you will meet us at the Courthouse at Pittsboro on Saturday night June 23rd, 1917. The benefits to be derived are as follows:

1st.  Exemption from Conscription;
2.  You will be with your own friends from this county;
3.  You elect your own Officers;
4.  Service in the United States;
5.  $30.00 per month and Board and Clothing;
6.  Freedom from duty until after August 5th, which gives you a chance to finish the work you are engaged in;
7.  One-fourth pay after your duty is over and you return home.

And many other benefits which we will explain to you before you leave the county.

Will you volunteer for some honorable service in this country, or will you be SENT to some foreign field?

Will you meet with us Saturday night, June 23rd, 1917, and help us uphold the Standard of our County?
Respectfully, C. E. Inman.
  

18-47 (June 28 1917)   Calhoun Military Company Was Secured and Sworn In Saturday [Excerpts]

...It was an awe inspiring sight to witness the rush of the stalwart, physically able young men of Calhoun to join the colors. they responded nobly. From early Saturday morning until ten o'clock that night a battery of machines chattered ceaselessly writing up the enlistment blanks. As fast as they were signed, the applicants were lined up before the Recruiting officer, Major C. R. Dalbey of Jackson, Miss. who administered the solemn oath.

A grand total of 87 men have been signed up and sworn in and we venture the assertion that no company in Mississippi will show a more stalwart, intelligent, able and capable set of men than the "Calhoun Volunteers."

Lots of these young men were not in the ranks of those registered under the conscription law. A number were under 21 and several more than 31. These would have not been conscripted, yet they volunteered in order to do their best for their county.

At about 8 o'clock that evening, a sumptuous supper ws served in the Gaines old store building here by the patriotic ladies of Pittsboro. ...

Captain C. E. Inman was unanimously chosen to lead the company. Allan Ellard was next elected First Lieutenant and then Raymond E. Killingsworth, second Lieutenant. Walter Crawford and Rowell Crocker, both … complimentary votes for these offices.

Thirty-two boys from north of Schoona joined. Vardaman, Big Creek and Pittsboro with a few others scattered made up the rest. Others are coming in every day. Only 150 can be accepted. The physical examinations are being held and so far out of 23 examined, 21 have passed.

Major Applewhite of the U. S. Army was here Monday and inspected the company of Infantry organized in Calhoun county. This company has been officially designated as Company “B” 2nd Miss. Regiment. Major Dalbey who was here and mustered the company in on June 23rd is to be Colonel of this regiment.

18-52 (Aug. 9 1917)    Official Roll of Company B.

The following is the official list of the Calhoun Company which is now quartered at Pittsboro. They will be here for ten days or two weeks possibly longer, though they are now subject to a call at any time.  Their equipment is expected by the middle or last of this week. In the meantime they are putting in several hours each day learning the rudiments of drilling. They are sleeping around at the various homes hereabout and are being fed in the Enochs old storehouse on the ease side of the square.

Here is the list: C.E. Inman, Captain, 1st Lieut. J. A. Ellard, 2nd Lieut R. E. Killingsworth, 1st Sergt. Robt. Embrey, Q.M. Sergt. Jack Dowdy

Seargeants: J. E. Ritter, Leroy Becyett [Beckett], J. F. Ellard, Walter Crawford, W. B. Cole, Joe Hamilton, W. H. Werner

Corporals: W. H. Bacon, R. E. Brannon, O.K. Ferrell, J. A. Hitt, R. O. Dale, J. E. Collums, Leland Bennett, S. M. Dale, George Gulledge, John Kirby, Grover Berry, Roy Carter, A. E. Weaver.

Musician: Everett Raspberry Reid

Privates: Sam Ashby, Henry Abbott, Jas. Bagwell, Alvin Bedwell, Ernest Bounds, E. O. Britt, Henry Bacon, Dewey Bollinger, Luther Barton, Henry Burt, Ernest Bennett, Carter Bailey, Dwight Bryan, Donley Byars, Wallace Brown, R. Crocker, Everett Carter, Cyde Callahan, Harvey Collums, Roy Carter, Demsy Collums, Quincy Carter, Barney Cole, Worthier Carter, John Denton, Joe Delk, Jim Easley, Edgar Easley, John Edwards, Eula Edwards, F. Fergurson, Selby Foster, Wille Fox, Jim Gulledge, Chester Floyd, Jas. Hightower, Raymond Huffman, W. Hair, R. L. Barker, Robert Hardin, Z. L. Hughes, Durell Henry, Floyd Hendon, Gilbert Harbor, Clarence Hicks, John P. Ivy, John J. Ivy, Leroy Inman, Jim Johnson, Willie Johnson, J. A. Killingsworth, Jno. Kirby, Jno. Kimbrough, Sam Lee, Wade Lester, Dan Miller, Robt. Mitchell, Robt. McCurley, John Mcgraw, Jack McCormick, H. McGarrity, James Mobley, Tom Morfis, C. Moorman, Jessie Moore, Ernest Niz, Walter Nations, Jas Norman, H. N Nix, G. C. Pritchard, Jennings Prewitt, Rex Peden, Frank Poynor, C. A. Patterson, W. Patterson, Jas. Pritchard, Barney Poynor, Dewy Poynor, J. B. Shearer, Hosea Rish, Elmer Shannon, P. C. Shannon, W. L. Stoddard, Joe Saxon, James Stone, Osborn Smith, D. Scarbrough, W. Sturdivant, Floyd Sartin, Columbus Sartin, Wilton Simpson, C. Springer, Edd Turner, Berry Tedford, Tom Therrell, J. H. Vaughn, Harry Warner, Thomas Ward, John Weaver, Herman Walton, Tom Young.
 

People in Calhoun were saddened on last Sunday when the body of Private Willie Johnson of Company B 2nd MS was brought in. No news had arrived here as to his death and it was a sad surprise to all.

Young Johnson came from over near Sarepta and his body dressed in full uniform and in a beautiful coffin, covered with the United States flag and a lot of beautiful hot house flowers, and accompanied by his surviving brother and six comrades from the company, was carried over to the Collums graveyard and interred on last Sunday afternoon.

Private Johnson was well known here, having spent the three weeks that the soldiers were in Pittsboro at the home of Attorney Jim L. Johnson. He was a nice, mannerly and kind young man and we liked by everyone. His comrades in the company say that no one was thought more of down there by the others than was he.

He had just gotten up from an attack of measles when he took pneumonia and the end came suddenly. He died on Saturday morning at the Jackson Sanitarium.

It was frequently remarked here the morning the Soldier Boys left: “They won’t all come back” and even this early, this prophecy has been realized. It is a sad thought.

We extend our sincere sympathy to the heart broken family.

20-10 (Oct 17, 1918)
By order of the State Board of Health, until further notice all funerals must be held privately and no corpse shall be opened in any church, school, or other public building.  Eli Powell, Co. Health Officer

A part of this Division is the 154th Infantry, and belonging to the 154th infantry is K Company, which is the Company that was made up in Calhoun and is known as the Calhoun Volunteer Company. They were stationed at Jackson, MS for several months and were known as Co. B, 2nd Miss. …

Judging from reports in the newspapers, these boys should be at home by February 1st next year.