A brief history of the 2nd Arkansas Volunteer Infantry
by Patrick McSherry
The 2nd Arkansas Volunteer Infantry mustered into service after the
April 23, 1898 Presidential proclamation calling for 125,000 volunteers
for service in the war against Spain. They rendezvoused at Fort Logan H.
Roots in Arkansas. The unit was part of the second brigade (under the command
of Col. Milton Moore) of the first division of the Third Army Corps. "The
operations of this corps during its two and a half months' service in Chickamauga
Park [the camp was on the old Civil War Chickamauga battlefield in Georgia,
which was owned by the Federal Government and had the space readily available
for a large encampment] were limited to completing its equipment, instruction,
drill, and training necessary to prepare it for the more serious work of
actual campaign...The daily routine consisted of schools for officers and
noncommissioned officers, elementary drill, target practice and battle
exercises. In these the troops acquired a proficiency which justified the
utmost confidence in their efficiency and effectiveness in actual operations
of war."
The camp at Chickmauga was becoming unhealthy, so on August 28, 1898,
the Third Corps was ordered to Camp Shipp at Anniston, AL. There had been
1,818 cases of illness in the 3rd Corps, 1st Division, of which 32 had
resulted in death. This was eight times the number of deaths suffered by
the U.S. forces in the taking of Puerto Rico. The actual movement to Anniston
began on September 1, 1898. The unit was still in Anniston as of October
13, 1898.
The war had ended on August 13. The Second Arkansas did not have
to leave the country, but still suffered casuaties from the ravages of
disease.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Clerk of Joint Comittee on Printing, The Abridgement of Message
from the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress,
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899). Vol. 1, pp. 607, Vol 3,
pp. 224-225, 489, 494.
Cosmas, Graham A., An Army for Empire: the United States Army
in the Spanish- American War. (Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Publishing
Co., 1993). 275
