Battery F, First Field Artillery of the NJ Natl Guard, Morristown was called the "Gillespie Battery", because it was organized in part by Major Samuel Hazard Gillespie, Morristown. The unit was rolled into the US 8th Division, reporting in Anniston, AL July 25, 1917, with the guards from VA, MD, DE and DC. Their leave taking ceremony in Morristown was July 23, 1917. The Daily Record in a lengthy front page article said
..as all Morristown knows that group of youth who have joined the colors to fight until the safety and establishment of world democracry is a surety, was given a send-off last night in the Park Theatre. Never in the history of this municipality--or in the history of Morris County from its ealiest days--was there such a patriotic demonstration as was this one.
(Hmmm, soldiers freezing and starving at Jockey Hollow in 1778 was pretty patriotic?)
Major Gillespie, who died December 1, 1957, was quite the local figure: primary owner of the Jerseyman, a Morristown newspaper; president of Morris & Somerset Electric Co (which became JCP&L); importer/exporter and transportation advisor to the US Army during World War II and president of the boards of both the Morristown Presbyterian Church and the YMCA.
Monday, April 11, 2011
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Further research reveals: the Morristown contingent became the 104th Battery (trench artillery), 29th Division. They trained, shipped and marched from the US to France, but never saw action, arriving near the front as the armistice was signed. There were only five units casualties, all victims of the flu who died in camp hospital in France.
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