[2] As a substitute to the Spanish Civil Guard in Cuba, the need arose to utilize the disbanded Cuban Liberation Army for local policing duties.

By the end of the month, the guard had expanded to 40 guardsmen, tasked with law enforcement, dismantling bandits, and safeguarding landowners' rural properties.

[5] Upon the organization of the guard in the Puerto Príncipe district on January 1, 1899, Military Commander Louis H. Carpenter directed that the forces be provided with Remington carbines and Mauser ammunition from the Liberation Army which had been placed at his disposal in November 1898.

[5] Lt. Col. Braulio Peña, holding the rank of Colonel in the Cuban Army's Cavalry, was designated as the Chief of the Rural Guard for Puerto Príncipe Province.

Roughly 160 men, drawn from former Liberation Army soldiers and veterans of the War of Independence, were divided into 9 squadrons distributed throughout the province to conduct cavalry patrols and maintain public order.

[5] In December 1899, Leonard Wood met with Pablo García Menocal in La Habana Province and began arrangements to organize a rural guard composed of 350 mounted troops of the Cuban army for the protection of the outlying areas of the city.

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Herbert G. Squiers reported the Rural Guard underwent a reorganization and was approved for an expansion from 1,500 to 3,800 officers.

Cuban citizens aged 21-45, literate in Spanish, of good character, and physically fit (120-170 lbs, 5'4" or taller), and with no prior criminal convictions or dishonorable discharges were eligible for a requirement of a four-year enlistment.

The Guardia Rural was confirmed as a static gendarmerie style force with law enforcement and internal security responsibilities outside the major urban districts.

Mechanised and mounted Guardia cavalry, plus infantry units provided provincial garrisons, as well as augmenting the concentration of regular army troops at Havana.

[19] During the Cuban Revolution the 44 Rural Guard squadrons still nominally in existence played a generally passive garrison role, leaving field action to the anti-guerrilla battalions of the Constitutional Army.