Screw back style attaching disc on reverse.

A "SEP company" during the Spanish-American War referred to a "Spanish-American War volunteer company," meaning a military unit made up of American volunteers who enlisted to fight against Spain during the conflict. These companies were primarily formed from American citizens who wanted to join the military effort against Spain in Cuba and the Philippines. Many Americans were motivated by a sense of patriotism and a desire to support Cuban independence from Spanish rule. One well-known SEP unit was Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders," a volunteer cavalry regiment that participated in key battles in Cuba.

Starting in the 1870's, New York raised national guard units in the smaller towns across the state, places too small to have regiments or battalions. These were officially named and numbered Separate Companies and were independent units. Starting in the late 1890's these companies were grouped into regiments, but still retained their Separate Company nomenclature for a few years. Later they would receive traditional titles - like Company A 2nd Regiment. The Separate Companies had a proud history associated with their original names, and so the insignia of these units continued to reflect their Separate Company heritage. Thus the insignia pictured reflects the newer standard regimental designation (Company A, 2nd Regiment) and their historical separate company designation (6th Separate Company which was located in Troy NY). These historical designations hung around with decreasing official status until WWI. Some NY National Guard Units today still retain and utilize their Separate Company designation when memorializing their history.  Big Cities like NY City and Buffalo never had Separate Companies. Since in the period before the Civil War many NY units had their roots in colonial or just post-colonial volunteer companies with names like the Washington Continentals.

On April 25th, 1898 the United States of America declared war on Spain. On the 23rd of April, two days before the official declaration of war, President William McKinley issued a call for 125,000 volunteers to bolster the ranks of the regular U.S. Army for the coming conflict in the Philippines and the Caribbean. New York State was asked to furnish twelve full regiments of infantry and two troops of cavalry to the war effort. President McKinley expressed the desire that as large a portion of the volunteers as possible should be composed of troops from the National Guard, as they are already armed, equipped, and drilled. As the National Guard was technically the New York State militia, it was illegal to simply muster the units into the army. The commanders of all of the state’s infantry organizations were ordered to assemble their units in full uniform and obtain by actual count, the number of officers and men who wished to be relegated to active service for a two-year tour of duty. Under this first call for volunteers New York State furnished in full their quota, composed entirely of units from the National Guard.

The twelve regiments chosen for service in the Spanish-American War were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 47th, 65th, 69th, and 71st New York Volunteer Infantry Regiments. All of these regiments were formerly National Guard units and most of them retained their original organizations. Only the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd regiments were different as they had been assembled from a collection of independent companies and battalions. Squadron A and Troop C, of the National Guard cavalry provided the two required troops for the war effort. Each regiment was composed of twelve companies, each with an effective strength of 84 officers and men. This gave each regiment a total strength of 1,008 men on paper. In actuality the numbers at the onset of the war were slightly higher, with each regiment fielding 1,019 officers and men. The cavalry troops were the same size as an infantry company and had an equivalent strength. New York State supplied a total of 12,460 officers and men in its volunteer regiments in response to the president’s first call for troops.

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