talion, O.V.I., relieving Major
Fillmore. In order to enable Lieutenant Young to accept his volunteer
commission, he was granted an indefinite leave of absence by the War
Department.

May 19, 1898, the command having been ordered to join the Second Army
Corps at Camp Russell A. Alger, near Falls Church, Va., left Camp
Bushnell and arrived at Camp Alger May 21, 1898.

When Major-General Graham assumed command of the Second Army Corps and
organized it into divisions, the battalion was placed in the
provisional division. In June (exact date not remembered) the
battalion was placed in the Second Brigade, Second Division, being
brigaded with the Twelfth Pennsylvania and Seventh Illinois Regiments.
The battalion was relieved from the Second Brigade, Second Division
and placed in the Second Brigade, First Division, being brigaded with
the Eighth Ohio and Sixth Massachusetts.

A New Jersey regiment was relieved from duty as corps headquarters'
guard late in June and the Ninth Battalion assigned to that duty. The
battalion performed this duty until it was ordered South from Camp
Meade, Penn., when it became separated from corps headquarters.
Important outposts, such as the entrance to Falls Church and the
guarding of the citizens' gardens and property, were under the charge
of the command.

When General Garretson's brigade (Second Brigade, First Division,
consisting of the Eighth Ohio, Ninth Battalion and Sixth
Massachusetts) was ordered to Cuba, General Graham, thinking that his
entire Army Corps would soon be ordered to active service, requested
the War Department, as the battalion was his headquarters guard, to
let the battalion remain with him. (See telegrams Gen. Graham's report
to the Secretary of War.) General Graham's request being honored by
the department, the battalion was deprived of this chance of seeing
active service in foreign fields. The battalion was then attached to
the Second Brigade, Second Division, under Brigadier-General Plummer,
being brigaded with the First New Jersey, Sixty-fifth New York and
Seventh Ohio.

In July the battalion was relieved from this brigade and attached
directly to corps headquarters. When the Second Army Corps was ordered
to Camp Meade, Penna., the battalion was one of the first to break
camp, going with corps headquarters. The battalion left Camp R.A.
Alger August 15, 1898, and arrived in camp at Camp George G. Meade,
near Middletown, Penna., August 16, 1898. In camp the bat