Send Off Day Poster.
The parade lasted a massive five hours. The dignitaries in the reviewing stand included former President Theodore Roosevelt. 4,000 New York City policemen were deployed to control a crowed that was estimated to reach as high as 2,000,000 spectators.
Col. James S. Boyer. Washington Arch Square in the background.
The New York National Guard's 27th Division had a fair number of dignitaries and representatives from well known families itself amongst 24,000 members in and of itself.
Colonel Cornelius Vanderbilt III, Commander of the 22nd Engineers, New York National Guard. In civilian life Vanderbilt was an engineer associated with his family's railroad interest but often on the outs with his parents due to a marriage that they disapproved of.
The unit wasn't going to France yet, but actually just leaving the State of New York for Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina. And the New York National Guard wasn't contained completely within the 27th Division. Other units remained in training in the state and would be deployed to Army training camps in the coming weeks, resulting in more, if not quite so massive, farewell parades.
The unit Vanderbilt commanded at this time, the 22nd Engineers, New York National Guard.
Watching from downtown New York.
Major General John Francis O'Ryan, commander of the 27th Division. He was a lawyer and a life long resident of New York City. He was also a rare National Guard officer in that he was a graduate of the Army War College. The youngest division commander in the Army at the time of his arrival in Europe, he was also the only National Guard officer still in command of a division by the war's end.
Lt. Col. Paul Loeser, Commander of the Eighth Coast Defense Command (coastal artillery).
The parade also included units of the New York National Guard's Coastal Artillery. Coast Artillery is something we don't think much about anymore, but it was a major defensive organization at the time by necessity and it was a natural for the National Guard, given that Guardsmen could train in place on the same weapons they'd man in war.
Col. Sidney Grant, Commander of the Thirteenth Coast Defense Artillery. By the time this phoograph was taken the day must have grown hot as Col. Grant has taken off his service coat.
Maj.Wilbur T. Wright, Commander of the Second Battalion, Second Field Artillery, New York National Guard.
Col. John J. Byrne, the Commander of the Ninth Coast Defense.
Scenes like this were playing out all over the nation as National Guard units were being sent off to training camps and ultimately to the war. New York's example was an unusually large one, but then the populace state had a very large National Guard establishment.
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