First Regiment Rhode Island U.S. Volunteers

=First Regiment Rhode Island Infantry=

Organized in Rhode Island, April, 1861. Moved to Washington, D. C., April 20 and 24, 1861. Duty at Camp Sprague, Defences of Washington, till July 16. Attached to Burnside's Brigade (Ambrose Burnside), Hunter's Division (David Hunter), McDowell's Army of Northeast Virginia (Irvin McDowell), June-July. Advance on Manassas, Virginia, July 16-21. First Battle of Bull Run July 21. Left Washington, D. C. for home July 25. Mustered out August 2, 1861. Regiment lost during service 1 Officer and 16 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 8 Enlisted men by disease, for a total 25.

First Regiment Rhode Island U.S. Volunteers

Under proclamation signed Apr 23rd, 1898, President William McKinley ordered the call up of 125,000 troops. Rhode Island was directed by Secretary of War Russell A. Alger to raise a regiment of infantry from existing militia units in lieu of conscripting 720 individuals for regular army service by letter dated Apr 25, 1898. On May 2 the state established a camp site at Quonset Point in Rhode Island, and formally named the site "Camp Dyer" in honor of Governor Elisha Dyer on May 7, 1898. The regiment began to muster until fully assembled between May 10 and May 17, with Colonel Charles W. Abbot Jr, commanding. Initially the unit consisted of forty-six officers and 958 enlisted men. This regiment, the only infantry regiment raised on Rhode Island during the war was constituted of several milita infantry units in Rhode Island.

The unit was assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, Second Corps and reported for duty at Camp Alger, Virginia from late May. However the regiment and the rest of Second Corps left Camp Alger in early Aug, 1898 due to a typhoid fever epidemic. The regiment relocated to another part of Virginia at Thoroughfare Gap in an attempted run from the virus. However, conditions in Thoroughfare Gap resulted in dysentery and malaria, and the unit eventually relocated to Camp Meade, Pennsylvania with the rest of Second Corps in Aug, 1898. The overcrowded conditions forced the relocation of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Division of Second Corps to relocated to Camp Fornance, South Carolina.

The regiment was mustered out of service on March 30, 1899 at Columbia, South Carolina. The unit returned to Providence and handed over colors to Governor Elisha Dyer after a parade past city hall on Apr 1, 1899. At the time of muster-out, the regiment included forty-five officers and 1,039 enlisted men. During its term of service, the unit lost eleven enlisted men who died from disease and one enlisted man who died as the result of an accident. Thirty-five more enlisted men were discharged for disability. Interestingly the, the unit also had thirteen enlisted men court-martialed and eighty-nine men desert the regiment.

Unit timeline

*May 20, fully mustered at Camp Dyer, Quonset Point, Warwick, Rhode Island.
*May 27, departed Camp Dyer for Camp Alger, Dunn Loring, Virginia.
*May 30, arrived in Camp Alger.
*Aug 3, departed Camp Alger for Thoroughfare Gap, Virginia.
*Aug 8, arrived in Thoroughfare Gap.
*Aug 21/22, departed Thoroughfare Gap for Camp George Meade, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
*Aug 23/24, arrived at Camp George Meade.
*Nov 13, departed Camp George Meade for Camp Fornance, Columbia, South Carolina.
*Mar 1, 1899, unit disarmed, and muster out date set for Mar 30th.
*Mar 30 1899, mustered out of service at Camp Fornance, departed for Jersey City, New Jersey by rail road.
*May 31, 1899, arrived in Jersey City and embarked aboard the steamer "Rhode Island" for Providence, Rhode Island.
*Apr 1, 1899, arrived at India point wharf and paraded past city hall, and turned over colors at Dexter parade ground (unit temporarily rearmed at pier and disarmed at parade ground).

Organization

*First Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers
**Field and Staff
**Company A-M

Other Units

In addition to the first regiment, the state of Rhode Island raised the following units for the war with Spain:
*Light Battery A, 1st Rhode Island Volunteer Artillery.
*Light Battery B, 1st Rhode Island Volunteer Artillery.
*Members of the Rhode Island Naval Militia who served under federal orders.
*Members of Rhode Island who were assigned to the USS "Vulcan" as part of the US Navy.
*Members of the state Rhode Island Militia Hospital Corps who served under federal orders.

ee also

1st Rhode Island Regiment, American Revolutionary War unit

Citations

*"Rhode Island in the War with Spain", published by Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, a compilation of records and letters, compiled 1900.