16th Infantry Regiment (United States)

The 16th Infantry Regiment ("Semper Paratus") is a regiment in the United States Army and has traditionally been a part of the 1st Infantry Division.

History

Formation

The 16th Infantry was constituted as the 11th U.S. Infantry on 4 May 1861 under the command of Colonel Erasmus D. Keyes and organized by Major DeLancey Floyd-Jones. The 11th Infantry was organized by direction of the president 4 May 1861 and confirmed by the act on 29 July 1861. The regiment was organized into three battalions of eight companies each. On 21 September 1866 under the act of 28 July 1866 the Second Battalion became the Twentieth Infantry and the Third Battalion the Twenty-ninth Infantry. The regiment that actually fought during the Civil War was organized by order of the president 4 May 1861 and confirmed by the act of 29 July 1861 as the 16th Infantry Regiment. On 21 September 1866 under the act of 28 July 1866 the Second Battalion became the Twenty-fifth Infantry and the Third Battalion became the Thirty-fourth Infantry. In actuality the present 16th Infantry was not involved in the Civil War, that regiment was consolidated into the 2d Infantry. The following campaign participation honors were actually earned by the 16th Infantry in the Civil War but went to the 2d Infantry with the consolidation; Atlanta, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Georgia 1864, Kentucky 1862, Mississippi 1862, Murfreesboro, Shiloh and Tennessee 1863.

U.S. Civil War

The 1st Battalion, 11th U.S. Infantry (today's 16th Infantry Regiment) was initially organized at Fort Independence, Massachusetts, in the summer and fall of 1861. That October, the regiment was transferred to Perryville, Maryland, to prepare for Major General George B. McClellan's upcoming spring campaign on the Virginia Peninsula. Assigned to the Army of the Potomac's 2nd Division, V Army Corps in the spring of 1862, the regiment fully participated in most of the key battles of that campaign to include the Siege of Yorktown (1862), Gaines's Mill, and Malvern Hill. The regiment participated in the Second Battle of Bull Run in August. This clash was quickly followed in succession by the regiment's involvement at the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Shepherdstown and the actions Leetown that fall. In December 1862, the regiment fought at the Battle of Fredericksburg and at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. A month later, the 1st Battalion, 11th U.S. Infantry fought what was arguably its most significant action of the war at Gettysburg under the leadership of Major Floyd-Jones. In heavy fighting in the Rose Wood and Plum Run Valley between the Devil's Den and the Wheatfield, the regiment lost about 50 percent of its strength as it fought to contain James Longstreet's breakthrough of the Union Third Army Corps at the Peach Orchard. During the spring and summer of 1864, the regiment participated in General Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign and fought at the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Jericho Mills, Cold Harbor, and finally in the Siege of Petersburg. In November the regiment was sent to New York for a short period, then after short stints at Lafayette Barracks in Baltimore and Camp Parole (Parole Camp) at Annapolis in Maryland, it was returned to the Army of the Potomac to perform duties as part of the Army of the Potomac's Provost Guard in February 1865. By the spring of 1865, only a few of those soldiers sworn in at Fort Independence in 1861 were still present to participate in the regiment's last wartime task—to help disarm General Robert E. Lee's weary Confederates at Appomattox that April.

On 18 April 1869 Headquarters, Staff, Band and the remaining companies of the 16th Infantry Regiment were consolidated with the 2d Regiment of Infantry and the consolidated unit designated as the 2nd Infantry Regiment. Colonel Samuel W. Crawford, 16th Infantry, took command of the consolidated 2d Infantry because of his seniority.

Reorganized 14 April 1869, under the act of 3 March 1869, the present 16th Infantry was formed by the consolidation of the Eleventh (11th) and Thirty-fourth (34th) Regiments of Infantry. The 34th Infantry was organized by direction of the president 4 May 1861 as the Third Battalion, 16th Infantry and designated Thirty-fourth Infantry on 21 September 1866 under the act of 28 July 1866.The honors and battle history earned by the 11th Infantry during the Civil War became the 16th Infantry's with the 1869 consolidation and are displaying on its colors.

Following the Civil War the 16th took part in the reconstruction of the south, including the occupation of the Confederate capital of Richmond, and then served on the frontier, in the Indian Wars.

Spanish–American War

The 16th participated in the capture of San Juan Hill as part of the First Brigade, First Division of the V Corps, in the brigade commanded by Brigadier General Hamilton S. Hawkins.
The 16th later fought in the Philippine–American War. It fought 27 engagements with the greater part of its activities concentrated against the rebels in the Cagayan Valley, defending the Manila & Dagupan Railroad in a series of counterinsurgency actions. The regiment was relieved in March 1902 and returned to Fort McPherson, Georgia. It returned to Fort McKinley in the Philippines to serves as part of the Philippine Division under the command of Brigadier General John J. Pershing. It returned to the United States in 1907, where the First Battalion was assigned to Fort Logan H. Roots in North Little Rock, Arkansas and the remainder of the regiment assigned to Fort Crook.

Pancho Villa Expedition

From July 1910 through July 1912, the 16th Infantry was assigned to a variety of posts in Alaska, then returned for duty at the Presidio of San Francisco. Two years later, the regiment was transferred with the 8th Brigade, commanded by "Black Jack" Pershing, to the Mexican Border to help secure it from Mexican bandits and paramilitary forces commanded by Francisco "Pancho" Villa