100 years ago in The Saratogian

Saturday, Feb. 8, 1919. Nearly three months after the end of the world war, daily casualty lists published by the federal government allow American families to discover that loved ones had been killed or wounded in action.

In Saratoga County, for instance, “The news that 1st Class Sergeant William James Swartout had been wounded in action was received for the first time today, Sergeant Swartout’s name appearing in today’s official casualty list.”

Serving with the 315th Engineers, Swartout is a six-year veteran of the U.S. military. A Saratoga Springs native, his current civilian address is his father’s home in Ballston Spa. He has never mentioned a wound in the letters he’s written home, most recently from a military engineering school in France. That may be because, as the war department notes, he was only “slightly” wounded.

Machine Guns Big Factor in War

Lieutenant H. L. Brisbin of the 30th U.S. Infantry regiment is back home in the Spa City after receiving an honorable discharge from Camp Dodge IA. He relates his exploits in Europe in today’s Saratogian.

“Some people have an idea that the advance of the American army was a sort of a picnic with the Boches [i.e. the Germans] running so fast that we couldn’t keep up to them,” Brisbin says, “but I can assure you that on the Marne such was not the case. We had as desperate fighting as had taken place in all the war, and we had to fight and win the ground every inch of the way. The German spirit had not yet been broken.”

Brisbin saw action before many local soldiers, taking part in the Second Battle of the Marne in late July. After attending officers’ school, he returned to action in October as a lieutenant. On October 13 he was nearly buried alive when a shell shattered his foxhole. One day later, “a machine gun bullet got me five inches above the knee and passed straight through both legs, ploughing a nice passage through the muscle and flesh.”

Still hospitalized when the war ended, Brisbin sailed for home on December 23 and reached New York on January 3. He had to spend several weeks in Iowa because most of his fellow passengers came from that state. He has “nearly recovered from his wounds, although he is yet considerably lame.” An engineer by trade, he plans to remain in Saratoga County.

“The American soldier is the bravest of the brave and the fields covered with the wounded and dead were silent spokesmen of the fact that the Yankee lads never faltered in the face of almost impregnable difficulties,” Brisbin says.

—Kevin Gilbert