100 years ago in The Record

Thursday, March 6, 1919

“Laughing, crying, singing, whistling, with Miss Liberty smiling through a sheen of sunlight, ‘ Troy’s Own,’ lads composing the major portion of the 105th Regiment, covered with glory, fought conflicting emotions” as the Leviathan - carrying 10,000 troops of the 27th New York Division — shouldered her way through a fleet of ships in New York harbor.” So The Record describes the return of hundreds of Troy troops to the United States today. The Troy-based 105th, docks in Hoboken shortly before 1 p.m. “Cheering thousands lined the shores as the Leviathan reached the Narrows at 10 a.m. and started for her pier preceded by crowded ferryboats and scores of pleasure craft thronged with relatives of the returning fighters,” our special correspondent writes from New York. Among the boats is a “big steamer bearing the Troy banner,” with Mayor Cornelius F. Burns and other local notables on board. No civilians other than reporters are allowed to meet the troops on the pier. From Hoboken they’re conveyed to Camp Mils, Long Island, where they’ll soon be discharged from federal service. “Troy newspaper men seeking information were deluged with counter questions before answers were even considered,” our man writes, “With a big, healthy battalion of lads starving for informa- tion from home, news gathering proved quite embarrassing. “On every hand were requests to let relatives know through The Record that ‘ We are all as big as a house’ but anxious to see the ‘greatest little big city in this world.’ All desired to know when passes could be obtained, what day they were going to parade in Troy and, finally, at what time was it expected they would be released from camp.” Colonel James M. Andrews, the regimental commander, gives reporters a short statement. “Tell Troy the boys accomplished what they set out to do. Tell Trojans how proud I am of them, able to parade there. The 105th has lived up to glorious traditions.” Most of the Troy troops are in a “Troy battalion” under the temporary command of Captain George C. Bradshaw of Company C. He tells reporters that the men enjoyed “a fine voyage with little or no sickness.” Bradshaw also notes that since the declaration of war against Germany in April 1917 none of the men in his company had died of disease, even while the Spanish Flu was raging last year. On the other hand, 37 men of the original 250 in the company were killed in action, while another 97 were wounded. As for ordinary soldiers, “They cried — cried for sheer joy — these Troy boys who broke the indomitable will of Germany’s military machine.”