Westford dedicated its war memorial to the men and women who served their country from the pioneers through World War I, united across generations by a love of freedom. In the pioneer and colonial period from 1675 to 1763, settlers endured the loneliness and hardship of the wilderness while keeping constant guard against Indian attack through six Indian Wars, and Westford men took part in Lovwell's Expedition in 1724, the Cuban Invasion in 1740, the Reduction of Louisburg in 1745, the taking of Ticonderoga and Louisburg in 1758, and the Reduction of Canada in 1759. In the Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783, three companies of minute men marched from Westford on the morning alarm of April 9, 1775, under Capt. Timothy Underwood, Capt. Jonathan Minot, and Capt. Oliver Bates, and from then until Yorktown Westford men served in council, battle, committees of safety, and command of troops; Lt. Col. John Robinson of Prescott's Regiment held the highest rank, stood against the first shock of British troops at Concord Bridge, and fought at Bunker Hill, while 250 men served and 35 died. In the War of 1812, Commander Joel Abbot, a Westford native, served first as a midshipman on the frigate President, later fought at the Battle of Lake Champlain, carried out a spying mission at Sorel, Quebec, earned a commission as lieutenant and a Sword of Honor from Congress, later commanded the Boston Navy Yard in 1839, and in Commodore Perry's Expedition to Japan in 1852 commanded the U.S.S. Macedonian before becoming flag-officer of the squadron; Lieut. Walter Abbot, U.S.N., was wounded in the engagement between the frigates Chesapeake and Shannon, and Oliver Fletcher and James Kemp were killed at the Battle of Sacketts Harbor, N.Y. In the Civil War from 1861 to 1865, 217 townsmen bore arms to defend the Union and oppose slavery through four years of war on land and sea, and 35 named men gave their lives. In the Spanish-American War from 1898 to 1902, Westford honored those who served in what it called a righteous war fought to aid the weak and oppressed against foreign tyranny and to give Cuba and the Philippines a place among the free peoples of the earth, naming Sergt. Major Fred P Collins, Frank F O'Brien, and Philip R Prescott in memoriam. In World War I from 1917 to 1918, 161 young men and women of Westford answered the country's summons and served honorably in the Army, Navy, and hospitals until victory, and eight were named in memoriam.