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 to augment the Regular Army as U.S.
The unit was assigned to the 3rd Division, Second Army 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 August 1898, due to a typhoid fever epidemic.
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 August 1898.
The unit returned to Providence and handed over colors to Governor Elisha Dyer after a parade past city hall on April 1, 1899.