Station took the cars for their long journey. Officers and men were
all furnished sleeping accommodations on the train. Arriving in the
city of Missoula, for the gratification of the citizens and perhaps to
avoid strain on the bridge crossing the Missoula River, the men were
disembarked from the train and marched through the principal streets
to the depot, the citizens generally turning out to see them off. Many
were the compliments paid officers and men by the good people of
Missoula, none perhaps more pleasing than that furnished by a written
testimonial to the regret experienced at the departure of the
regiment, signed by all the ministers of the city.

As the Twenty-fifth was the first regiment to move in the preparation
for war, its progress from Montana to Chickamauga was a marked event,
attracting the attention of both the daily and illustrated press. All
along the route they were greeted with enthusiastic crowds, who fully
believed the war with Spain had begun. In St. Paul, in Chicago, in
Terre Haute, in Nashville, and in Chattanooga the crowds assembled to
greet the black regulars who were first to bear forward the Starry
Banner of Union and Freedom against a foreign foe. What could be more
significant, or more fitting, than that these black soldiers, drilled
up to the highest standard of modern warfare, cool, brave and
confident, themselves a proof of American liberty, should be called
first to the front in a war against oppression? Their martial tread
and fearless bearing proclaimed what the better genius of our great
government meant for all men dwelling beneath the protection of its
honored flag.

As the Twenty-fifth Infantry was the first regiment to leave its
station, so six companies of it were first to go into camp on the
historic grounds of Chickamauga. Two companies were separated from the
regiment at Chattanooga and forwarded to Key West where they took
station under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel A.S. Daggett. The
remaining six companies, under command of Colonel A.S. Burt, were
conducted by General Boynton to a choice spot on the grounds, where
they pitched camp, their tents being the first erected in that
mobilization of troops which preceded the Cuban invasion, and theirs
being really the first camp of the war.

Soon came the Ninth Cavalry, the Tenth Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth
Infantry. While these were assembling there arrived on the ground also
many white regiments, cavalry, artillery