OXFORD - They came - some under the cloak of darkness, others under the haze of a hundred fires and others under a fog of tear gas.

They stayed - all reviled, all threatened and some injured - until they could restore law to Oxford and the University of Mississippi.

Then, they left - all without recognition.

Honor overdue

On the 40th anniversary of deadly riots that preceded the admission of James Meredith as Ole Miss' first black student, Oxford hosted for a special ceremony several dozen of the more than 30,000 U.S. Marshals, National Guardsmen and active-duty servicemen who saved the town and campus.

"Today we want to honor those ... who restored the peace," Oxford Mayor Richard Howorth said at the ceremony, which drew even the director of the U.S. Marshals Service.

"Their mission was to save the University of Mississippi, the city of Oxford and a small band of U.S. Marshals," said Bill Doyle, author of "An American Insurrection," which chronicled "the battle of Oxford."

The crisis they solved, which culminated in gunfire, arson and pummeling by bricks by more than 2,000 rioters, was more than a public safety issue.

"You held the Constitution together," Doyle said.
The events of Sept. 30, 1962, and the days following would also shape the future.

"James Meredith helped change a mindset," said Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. "The fight you led helped create the Mississippi we have today."

While some of the honorees were Northeast Mississippi residents, others were residents of other areas who were returning to Oxford for the first time since their deployment.

Ted Cowsert of Orange City, Fla., was one of those.
"I've always wanted to come back," he said. "When they sent this invitation, I thought it was one last chance."
One of the early worries of the active-duty soldiers had been whether the National Guardsmen - most of whom were Mississippians - would stand by their sworn duty or side with the segregationist rioters.

"It was in the back of our minds," Cowsert said, "whether they were with us or against us. They did a good job, though."

Perhaps one of the most heroic elements of the troops' stand against terror was the discipline it took not to shoot back while they were under attack.

"We were the best riot-control company in the world at that time," said LTC Fred Villella (Ret.), who in 1962 was commander of Company A out of Fort Bragg, N.C. His soldiers marched onto the campus in "flying geese" formation, with guns locked and loaded, only to be pummeled with bricks and other hand-thrown missiles.
"I was holding on to the pack of that first man," Villella said. "I kept saying, 'Don't squeeze that trigger. Don't squeeze that trigger.'" The company's disciplined scared rioters away without further violence.

"We never broke cadence," he said. "That made the difference."

"We came in here like policemen," said William H. "Bob" Mayes, of Augusta, Ga., a military policeman who barely escaped fatal injury when rioters dumped a truck axle onto his Jeep. "We knew was someone had been hurt, and we were here to rescue them. We didn't shoot because we were peace officers. Not one round."

Though hundreds of servicemen were recommended by their superiors for medals in response to their heroism in Oxford, political forces denied them, fearing public reaction if commendations were granted in an action against American citizens.

Doyle quoted an officer who was in the thick of the battle: "'I saw men do things that night that would have earned them medal in wartime.'

"Today, you have marched out of the shadows and back into the light," Doyle told the servicemen and marshals present. "You are the lost soldiers of Oxford no more. You are the heroes of Oxford - and you will remain so forever."
In lieu of military recognition, the City of Oxford gave each serviceman and marshal present a key to the city - an Oxford first.

"It was a victory for blacks ... for whites," Howorth said. "It was a victory for civil rights ... for the nation."