My maternal grandfather, Raymond Hirst
US Army Cavalry
stationed at Madison Barracks,
Sackets Harbor, Jefferson County, NY
This photo was taken while he had the rank of Corporal. He was later promoted to Sergeant F. A. (Field Artillery). He was in the cavalry at the time the Army was in the final stages of transitioning from using horses in the battlefield to going all motorized. My mother tells me that on occasion as a young girl, her mother would take her and her siblings to the barracks parade ground and they would get to watch their father perform maneuvers on horseback.
As a corporal, Raymond married a local girl. Even though Raymond was originally from Philadelphia PA, when he left the Army, he and his family stayed in Jefferson County and raised their family near his wife's kin in Upstate New York. He became the patriarch of a family with a tradition of military service. Raymond and his wife had 2 daughters and 7 sons who survived to adulthood. Of those seven sons, six went on to serve in the military. Each of the two daughters married servicemen stationed at nearby Fort Drum. Raymond was born in 1902 and died in 1965.
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