100 years ago in The Saratogian

Tuesday, March 27, 1917

With ironic timing, just as the nation stands at the brink of war Captain Ranulf Compton of Saratoga County’s National Guard company has had a months-old request to be relieved from command approved.

Compton has commanded Company L. of the Second New York Infantry since November 1912. He led the company to Texas for border-patrol duty last summer. Shortly after returning home, he asked to be placed on the reserve list so he could look after his local business. The order relieving him of command was finally issued on March 24.

The captain receives the order today, while he’s engaged in bringing Company L back up to its optimum strength of 150 men. First Lieutenant Harry J. Young takes command of the company, while Compton is expected to take command of the depot company that will assume home guard duty when Company L. is called out of town.

“Because of the long service, military efficiency and personal popularity of Lieutenant Young, it is probable that he will be given an opportunity to try examination for a commission as Captain,” The Saratogian reports.

Young receives an order tonight to halt recruiting efforts. By this point, Compton and Young had brought the company up from 74 men on Sunday to 99 enlisted men and two officers.

“Although the officers would have been glad to recruit up to full war strength, 150 men, Lieutenant Young considers that a company of 100 can be much better cared for and more readily handled, the handicap of a larger company being the management of a large number of men who have never been subject to drills or military service,” a reporter writes.

RED CROSS

Meanwhile, Compton addresses an organizational meeting for Saratoga Springs’ first chapter of the American Red Cross. He “spoke of the great work done by the Red Cross in connection with the Guard mobilization last summer,” The Saratogian reports.

“Giving specific instances he told of how 1,700 cots had been furnished by the Red Cross for the Second Infantry and how tobacco and cigarettes had been provided for the men.”

Thomas R. Kneil of the Saratoga Business Men’s Association is named chairman for the new chapter, which has yet to be chartered by the national Red Cross organization. The organization is represented at tonight’s meeting by William Nelson of the Atlantic Branch, who says that “since the recent strained relations with Germany the Red Cross movement has spread like wildfire throughout the country.”

Congress is expected to declare war on Germany next month. Company L. has been assigned police protection duty in the event of civil unrest.