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In August 1898, the 1 st and 2 nd Battalions (minus Company ‘F’) returned to the U.S.A., and in September rejoined the 3 rd Battalion (which did not go overseas during the war) at Hunstville, Alabama.
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Company ‘F’ served in Puerto Rico as part of the occupation force there, after the invasion of August 1898. The 1 st and 2 nd Battalions (minus Company ‘F’) of the regiment landed in Cuba as part of 1 st Brigade, 2 nd Division, Fifth Army Corps, and took part in the Siege of Santiago de Cuba. The companies were designated sequentially, ‘A’ to ‘M’ (the letter ‘J’ being omitted, to avoid confusion with ‘I’). At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898, the ten-company, single battalion, structure of infantry regiments was rapidly overhauled each regiment now consisted of twelve companies, organised into three battalions of four companies each. Raised in 1838 in New York, this regiment saw service in the Second Seminole War, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and the Indian Wars of the 1870s and 1880s. regimental number over company letter), in this case indicating Company ‘M’ of the 3 rd Battalion, 8 th U.S. He wears the 1889-pattern campaign hat, in drab fur felt, with the brass metal insignia authorised after July 1898 (i.e.
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His pose is a perfect ‘Parade Rest’, as per the Manual of Arms. His uniform, arms and equipment are entirely regulation, with none of the subtle variations in uniform, or use of older patterns of weapons and accoutrements, which so often indicated National Guard troops during this period. The Private in the photograph gives no indication that he is anything but a typical infantry ‘Doughboy’ of the Regular Army, circa 1898/1899.