Reaching Fonda, May twenty-sixth, we find the following entry in his Journal: "Scenery charming. I saw nothing in Massachusetts equal to the Valley of the Mohawk, and am surprised that novelist and poet have not found more material here for legendary romance."
Passing through St. Johnsville, Little Falls, Utica, and Rome—where he met a large number of his "Grand Army" comrades, and was introduced to Hon. H. J. Coggeshall, Colonel G. A. Cantine, Hon. W. T. Bliss, and many others—he arrived in Syracuse June second, registered at the Vanderbilt House, and lectured at Shakespere Hall in the evening. Rochester was reached on the eighth, where the tenth lecture was delivered to an appreciative audience in Corinthian Hall—the introduction being made by Colonel Reynolds. The Rochester Democrat noticed the lecture in the following paragraph:
"A very large audience assembled at Corinthian Hall last evening to listen to Captain Willard Glazier's lecture on 'Echoes from the Revolution.' The lecture was a very interesting one, and the audience were agreeably entertained. Captain Glazier proposes to go to Batavia, and from thence to Buffalo. He is meeting with deserved success in his journey on horseback from ocean to ocean, which increases as he becomes better known."
It may here be remarked that during Captain Glazier's stay in Rochester, an exception was made to the usually courteous reception given him by the local press. One of the papers threw doubts on the genuineness of his credentials and the rectitude of his motives. This, however, had little effect on him. He was conscious of his own integrity of purpose, and of being guided by a desire to do good while seeking knowledge and recreation in his own way, and the only notice we find of the circumstance in his Journal is in a few words under date of June eleventh: "Was pleased with an article in the Express, contradicting falsehoods in the Union."
The following is the article referred to:
"On Friday our evening contemporary took occasion to treat Captain Willard Glazier, who lectured in Corinthian Hall the night previous, with a degree of contempt and misrepresentation suggestive of Confederate sympathies on the part of the writer. As to the methods of Captain Glazier's business we have nothing to do. As a man and a soldier, he is above reproach. We have examined the original documentary testimonials to his military character, and no man could be better endorsed. That he has devoted himself since the war to illustrate the war of the rebellion in books and upon the rostrum is to his credit, and certainly to the benefit of the people whose patriotism he keeps alive by his appeals with pen and tongue. Doubt was cast upon his services on account of his youth. But the fact stands that Willard Glazier was a captain of cavalry at the age of eighteen, certainly a higher record than that of a stay-at-home Copperhead. He performed his duty, was honorably discharged, and is a member in good standing of that noble organization of veterans, the 'Grand Army of the Republic.' We trust that when Captain Glazier comes again to Rochester, he will have better treatment and a still better audience. His trip across the continent will result in the public's having a record of observations which cannot fail to be valuable and entertaining."
Batavia, Croft's Station, Crittenden and Lancaster were passed through, the usual courtesies tendered and accepted, lectures delivered with unvarying success, and the city of Buffalo reached on the morning of the nineteenth of June.
With a soldier's instinct, Glazier halted here at the parade-ground, and witnessed the drill of the militia. He then located himself at No. 34 Oak Street, where he was visited by many comrades of the "Grand Army" and other prominent citizens of Buffalo. Arrangements having been made, he lectured to a full house at St. James Hall, being introduced to the audience by Major John M. Farquhar. The following endorsement had appeared in the Buffalo Express the day preceding his arrival in the city, signed by prominent members of the "Grand Army of the Republic:"
Buffalo, New York,
June 18th, 1876.