The regiment was formed after the battleship USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor in Cuba on 15 February 1898.

[2] On 25 April 1898, President William McKinley asked Oregon for a regiment of infantry, preferably recruited from the existing National Guard.

[6] After a few days training under Colonel Owen Summers, it departed for the Presidio of San Francisco.

[2] Oregon troops fought in five campaigns and forty-two battles, engagements, and skirmishes over the next four months.

[9] Three days later, 21 of the same scouts, including High and Robertson, "charged across a burning bridge, under heavy fire, and completely routed 600 of the enemy who were entrenched in a strongly fortified position".

[12] Until 12 August, the regiment was stationed at Cavite; they were attached to the First Division, Eighth Army Corps on the 12th and participated in the assault on and capture of Manila on the 13th.

[12] In March, the regiment fought at Guadalupe on the 13th, Pasig on the 14th, Taguig on the 18th, Laguna de Bay on the 19th, Malabon on the 25th, and Polo on the 26th.

[12] On 14 June, the 2nd Oregon left Manila on the transports Newport and Ohio, arriving at San Francisco on 12 July, where 44 officers and 1,024 enlisted men were mustered out of the service of the United States on 7 August 1899.