The 325th Infantry Regiment was activated in the National Army on 25 August 1917, almost five months after the American entry into World War I. The regiment was part of the 82nd Division. Under the command of Colonel Walter M. Whitman, a professional Regular Army officer, the regiment, which was composed of large numbers of wartime volunteers and conscripts, also known as draftees, trained at Camp Gordon, Georgia as part of the 164th Infantry Brigade of the 82nd Infantry Division. However, only a small cadre of professional Regular Army soldiers were originally assigned to the 325th. The cadre was intended to train the many hundreds of new conscripts, most of whom recently called up and were very young and had had no prior military service, who would soon be entering the camp.