"Reminiscences of Saratoga"
compiled by Cornelius E. Durkee

May 2, The Twenty-second Separate Co. left the Armory headed by Major Lester and Captain Amos C. Rich.

The officers of the Company as they went to war were: Captain Amos C. Rich; first lieutenant, John A. T. Schwarte; second lieutenant, Obed M. Coleman; first sergeant, Lynn R. Rich; quartermaster sergeant Charles M. Dobbin; sergeants, John K. Walbridge, Frederick E. Calkins, Jesse S. Morris, Fred L. Pennoyer.

The Saratogian of May 2, 1898 describes the departure of the 22d Company for the war in part as follows:

"The Corps reached the depot just previous to the arrival of the train that was to take them on the way southward. The thought that the immediate destination of the troops was only Hempstead, L. I. did not allay the fears of the multitude and the good-byes were just as fervent and demonstrative as if the boys were going directly to Cuba. The crowd was so dense that the soldiers had to cut their way through the depot platform to reach the cars.* * *

"The Seventy-seventh Regiment band played patriotic airs as the parade approached the station, but the din at the depot drowned out many of the notes of the musicians. "Union Forever" and "Way Down in Dixie" were readily recognized during the intervals when the atmosphere was not surcharged with explosions of fireworks and artillery. The Armory cannon had been transfered to Franklin Square, and in charge of Clarence Fish, who had also fired the reveille, did thundering work. The concussion of the cannon shattered probably flfteen window panes in the United States Hotel.

"Eyes which on these gala occasions have gleamed with joy were dimmed with tears. At seventeen minutes of 7 o'clock the Saratoga cars were switched across Washington street and joined to the cars from the north, and the gaily decorated locomotive was soon disappearing in the distance while the band struck up the historic but always appropriate refrain of "The Girl I Left Behind Me." The girl tearfully wended her way homeward and committed her lover to the mercies of the God of Battles. A firing squad of 12 sturdy veterans under comand of R. S. Rimington fired three salutes at the speeding train. The cannon roared a goodbye. Nine locomotives of the round house emitted a valedictory as their whistles blew until a pressure of from 80 to 120 pounds of steam was exhausted. Railroad torpedoes punctured the engine's blasts and the train was lost in a cloud of steam and smoke as the reverberating echoes of a glorious goodbye lingered in the ears of Saratoga's volunteers."

May 12, Mrs. Zilpha Hodgman, died.

May 16, The Twenty-Second Co. was sworn into the service of the United States.

May 16, Lt. Frederick M. Waterbury organized a new company the 122d Separate Co. which was mustered into the national guard.

May 17, Jonathan Howland died, aged 92 years. He was born in North Dartmouth in 1772. The family moved to Quaker Springs, where Jonathan was born. With his family he came to Saratoga Springs in 1865 and after that date, Mr. Howland conducted the Howland House on North Broadway. Frank G. Howland, formerly treasurer of the Adirondack Trust co., now living here, and S. B. Howland of Schuylerville are his sons.

July 15, occurred the death of Dr. William H. Hodgman. He had ranked as one of the most successful and skillful surgeons in northern New York. He was the son of John B. and Eliza Phinney Hodgman and was born in this village Nov. 21, 1852. In 1870, he entered the office of Dr. Charles S. Grant, and graduated from the College of Physicians and surgeons In New York City, in 1873. He served for a time