The 1st West Virginia Volunteer Infantry served its term of service in the continental U.S.
Unit History:
The First West Virginia Volunteer Infantry was mustered into service between May 7 and May 14, 1898 at Fort Lee, across the Great Kanawha River from Charleston, West Virginia. At the time of its mustering in, the unit consisted of forty-six officers and 964 enlisted men. On May 16, 1898 the regiment departed for Camp Thomas at Chickamauga, Tennessee, where it arrived three days later. At Camp Thomas, the regiment was assigned to the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Division of the First Army Corps.
Camp Thomas soon began unhealthy as tens of thousands of men arrived
at the camp, and sanitary conditions deteriorated, water supplies were
inadequate, and the men where infected with strains of communicable
diseases to which they had not been previously exposed. As the summer
wore on, the federal government decided its only choice was to relocate
men from the camp to more healthy locations.
The First West Virginia departed Camp Thomas on August 24, arriving at Camp Poland in Knoxville, Tennessee three days later. On November 26, the regiment was again shifted, this time to Columbus, Georgia. Here it was reassigned to the 1st Brigade of the 2nd Division of the First Army Corps.
The regiment was mustered out of service at Columbus, Georgia on February 4, 1899 (the same day the the Philippine-American War began, the Spanish American War having ended on December 10, 1898 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris). At the time of muster out, the regiment consisted of forty-seven officers and 1,039 enlisted men.
During its term of service, the unit had one officer dismissed,
fourteen enlisted die from disease, one enlisted man die as the result
of an accident, two enlisted men court-martialed, fourteen enlisted men
discharged for reasons of disability and forty-four men desert.
Correspondence relating to the War with Spain And Conditions
Growing Out of the Same Including the Insurrection in the Philippine
Island and the China Relief Expedition. Vol. 1 (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1902), 622.
The Journal and Tribune (Knoxville, TN), November 24, 1898 - Contributed by Jeff Berry
Statistical Exhibit of Strength of Volunteer Forces Called into Service During the War with Spain; with Losses from All Causes. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899).
West Virginia Heritage Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, The Soldiery of West Virginia, published by Jim Comstock, 1974, pages 225-228 (courtesy of Ed Prichard).
Wright, General Marcus J., Wright's Official History of the
Spanish American War.
(Washington: War Records Office 1900). 258 (this source gives another
image of the event, with the men sitting).