Name/Title
Print, PhotographicEntry/Object ID
IMG2024.042.002Description
Black and White photograph of 2nd WV US Infantry soldiers in the Spanish American War taken in Greenville, South Carolina at Camp Wetherell, featuring Jefferson County residents.Context
On April 27, 1898, two days after the US declared war on Spain, West Virginia Governor George Wesley Atkinson summoned the West Virginia National Guard to mobilize at the state capitol. Locally, after hearing a rousing speech delivered by Roger Preston Chew, Jefferson County’s Company I, W.V.N.G commanded by Captain J. M. Pyne boarded a train and headed to Charleston.
One month later President William McKinley requested that Governor Atkinson mobilize the Second Regiment of Infantry composed of companies from around the state. State Senator Henry Clay Getzendanner from Shepherdstown was selected by the Governor to recruit an infantry company in Jefferson County, and on June 28, 1898, Captain Getzendanner and twenty-eight men camped at Morgan’s Grove near Falling Spring, the home of William Augustine Morgan, Getzendanner’s father-in-law.
Two days later, Captain Getzendanner and his men arrived at "Camp Atkinson'' in Charleston and were mustered in as Company M, 2nd West Virginia, United States Volunteer Infantry Regiment. From “Camp Atkinson” the regiment moved to "Camp Meade" at Middletown, Pennsylvania, where it stayed several months. Just before Thanksgiving 1898, the 2nd Regiment left Pennsylvania for South Carolina where it was headquartered at "Camp Wetherell.” Due to an August 1898 ceasefire the 2nd Regiment saw no action and remained in South Carolina where it mustered out of service in March 1899.Acquisition
Accession
2024.042Source or Donor
Breeden, KevinAcquisition Method
Gift