The Crossing: The 132nd Infantry Regiment on Guadalcanal (2013)

Dedicated to the men of the 132nd Infantry Regiment, this meticulouly researched painting honors the history of the storied regiment on Guadalcanal.

Since well before the formation of the United States, the people of Illinois have taken up arms to defend themselves, their country, and their liberty.

Illinois’s central location, as well as its access to the Great Lakes, gave it a strategic importance disproportionate to its population in the early days of the Republic. Throughout nearly the entire course of the 18th century and well into the 19th, across three wars, Illinois’s frontier settlers were called upon to protect shore access, shipping routes, and crucial points of river access from the French, hostile Native Americans, and the British.

Even after the Illinois territory was no longer directly threatened by external enemies, its citizens, of their own volition, willingly joined their fellow Americans to fight in every conflict that has threatened the liberties of a free people. And they have distinguished themselves in each of these conflicts.

The history of what would eventually become the 132nd Infantry Regiment is a study in heroism, self-sacrifice, and duty willingly undertaken. From its beginnings as a band of hardened frontier settlers clutching their own arms to defend their small homesteads, to its emergence as a highly-trained, elite battle force fighting to extend liberty across the globe, its original ideals of honor, duty, and defense of freedom have remained a constant over nearly three centuries. Its members continue to exemplify the ideal of the Citizen Soldier.