This day in 1918 in the Record

Tuesday, July 23, 1918. Troy this morning turned out en masse to bid farewell to 255 more of its sons who were entrained for service in the National Army,” The Record reports. One of the largest departures of local troops for military training, “today’s event surpassed in enthusiasm and numbers any preceding departure of draft men and was featured by many innovations that made the departure at once more memorable, inspirational and interesting.” The troops arrive at Union Depot in several contingents, one for each of Troy’s three draft districts and another for men from the rest of Rensselaer County. “The county men carried banners that suggested various things that would happen to the kaiser [German ruler Wilhelm II] when they arrived at the front and also consigning him to unexplored regions,” our reporter writes, “Their cheers and good nature assisted materially to make the departure one of general good nature rather than an exhibition of low spirits.” The depot is “crowded with humanity from one end to the other and many of the more venturesome climbed on cars standing along the tracks and thence to the platform roofs from which to obtain a vantage spot. “As the train pulled out track torpedoes spread by members of the railroad yard force and the cheers and ex- cited calls of friends and relatives to their soldier boys set a scene that thrilled all.” With Troy in the middle of the summer’s worst hot spell to date, three women faint from the heat, but none need to be hospitalized. They’re treated in a canteen set up by the Troy Navy League, which distributes cigars, cigarettes and chewing gum to the departing soldiers. Similar scenes play out throughout the Record reading area as draftees depart for Camp Meade in Maryland. The 110 men leaving Cohoes this morning make up that city’s largest contingent of soldiers since the U.S. declaration of war in April 1917. A crowd estimated in the thousands sees them off. Elsewhere in the evening edition, The Record reports the death of a Troy airman in the Royal Flying Corps. Lieutenant Joseph P. English, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence English of Washington and Second streets, died just two days ago, on July 21, according to a cablegram received today from the Royal Flying Air Corps. English enlisted in Canada “because the American aviators were not going to France quick enough to suit him.” The cablegram leaves unclear how exactly Lawrence died; it will be reported later that he was killed defending London from a German air raid. His parents received his last letter on the day of his death.