As relations between Spain and the United States deteriorated in the spring of 1898, the leaders of the U.S. Army began to plan for its first large-scale campaign since the Civil War, which had ended more than 30 years previously.

Seven regiments of infantry were ordered to Tampa, Florida and Brigadier General James F. Wade assigned to command the assembled troops.

[1] Five more regiments were ordered to Tampa on May 10 from Camp Thomas, Georgia (in the Chickamauga Battlefield Park), where the troops assembled had been formed into a provisional corps, the first command larger than brigade-size the Army had organized since the Civil War.

Major General William R. Shafter was named as commander of Fifth Army Corps, which assumed control of the troops assembling at Tampa, Florida.

[2] As the troops continued to suffer from disease, including yellow fever misdiagnosed as malaria, it was decided to return the men of Fifth Army Corps to the United States and a site on Montauk Point, Long Island was chosen, being convenient to the Long Island Rail Road and in theory, an easy location to quarantine; Camp Wickoff was established there and the corps completed its movement into quarantine camp on August 24, 1898.