100 years ago in The Saratogian

Saturday, Oct. 6, 1917

“With a mighty chorus of ‘good luck,’ Saratoga bade more of its boys goodbye today – another quota of sixtysix young men summoned by Uncle Sam to play their part in the war to maintain Democracy,” The Saratogian reports.

A third wave of Saratoga County draftees boards a train for the Camp Devens training facility in Ayer MA, where they’ll be made ready for combat in the world war against Germany. As with the last departure two weeks ago, Spa City businesses close for part of the afternoon so as many people as possible can take part in the parade to send off the troops.

“The parade was a recordbreaker, even in this city where long processions are common,” a reporter writes, “It was a living testimonial that the city is heart and soul behind the war, and those of its sons who are to take an active part.

“It was a great demonstration, greater even in the number of participants than the memorable occasion two weeks ago when the second quota boarded the train for camp. Greater in numbers but not in heartiness of farewell.”

While the reporter adds, “There were tears shed along the route and at the station, but it was noticeable that the affair was cheerier than two weeks ago,” a headline writer contradicts him slightly, heading the paragraph, “Not So Many Cheers Today.”

Ten Broeck Memorial

With the U.S. and Great Britain joining forces in the war against Germany, it might seem like an awkward time to dedicate a memorial to heroes of the Revolutionary War, but a representative of the British government is a good sport at today’s dedication ceremony for the Ten Broeck Memorial at the Bemis Heights battleground.

The memorial commemorates the heroism of Albany militia commanded by Brigadier General Abraham Ten Broeck during the Battle of Saratoga in 1777.

“Your departure from the empire, even though tragic, has been for the benefit of humanity, and, I may say just as candidly, is beneficial to the empire itself,” says Lt. Col. George H. Williams, who represents both the British and Canadian governments at the ceremony.

“For that old autocratic empire, whose attitude compelled your resistance … confesses to the world how splendidly it has learned the lesson of the battlefield of Saratoga – the fight for liberty – when that empire was the first of all nations on the earth to step into the arena and itself to challenge autocracy.”

Actually, Russia and France declared was on Germany before Britain did. The British joined the conflict after Germany invaded Belgium in August 1914.