The 22nd Infantry Regiment is a parent regiment of the United States Army. Currently the 2nd Battalion is active, with the regimental colors residing at Fort Drum, New York. The 1st, 3rd, and 4th Battalions have been inactivated.

Lineage and general regimental history

Regiment

Constituted 3 May 1861 in the Regular Army as the 2nd Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment. Organized 15 May 1865 at Camp Dennison, Ohio. Reorganized and redesignated 21 September 1866 as the 22d Infantry Regiment. Consolidated 1–31 May 1869 with the 31st Infantry Regiment (see ANNEX), and consolidated unit designated as the 22d Infantry Regiment. Assigned 24 March 1923 to the 4th Division (later redesignated as the 4th Infantry Division). 1st Battalion inactivated 30 June 1927 at Fort McPherson, Georgia and reactivated 1 June 1940 at Fort McClellan, Alabama). Inactivated 1 March 1946 at Camp Butner, North Carolina. Activated 15 July 1947 at Fort Ord, California for assignment to Germany in the German occupation. Sent to Fort Benning, and subsequently shipped to Bremerhaven, Germany in 1951. 2d Battalion went to Schweinfurt, Germany. Relieved 1 April 1957 from assignment to the 4th Infantry Division and reorganized as a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System.

ANNEX Constituted 3 May 1861 in the Regular Army as the 3d Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment. Organized in December 1865 at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. Reorganized and redesignated 21 September 1866 as the 31st Infantry Regiment. Consolidated 1–31 May 1869 with the 22d Infantry and consolidated unit designated as the 22d Infantry Regiment.

Indian Wars After the American Civil War and garrison duty in the East, the regiment was transferred to the Northern Plains and served in frontier forts. The regiment's efforts included keeping civilians out of the Black Hills of Dakota Territory that had been ceded to the Lakota Sioux in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. In 1869, the 22d Infantry was involved in actions at the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, in South Dakota.

After 1870, the United States Army allowed Black Seminoles from Mexico to serve as army scouts for the United States. These scouts were formally attached to the 22nd, but often served independently. The Seminole Negro Indian Scouts fought in the Texas Indian Wars of the 1870s. The scouts were well known for their tracking abilities and feats of endurance. Four of the 22nd Infantry's Seminole Scouts were awarded the Medal of Honor. After the Texas Indian Wars, the scouts remained stationed at Fort Clark in Brackettville, Texas. Edited by Alcione M. Amos and Thomas P. Senter.

On 8 January 1877, Companies E, and F of the 22d Infantry fought at the Battle of Wolf Mountain on the Tongue River in Montana Territory, and on 7 May 1877, Companies E, F, and G were present at the Battle of Little Muddy Creek. In 1888 the 22d Infantry's regiment headquarters was moved to Fort Keogh, Montana, and would remain there until 1896. In December 1890, and January 1891, the regiment participated in repressing the Ghost Dance on the Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, and in 1891, and 1892 patrolled throughout Montana.

Spanish–American War The 22d Infantry Regiment fought at Santiago 3 to 17 July 1898. One of the regimental officers, Captain Edward O. Ord, (son of Major General Edward Otho Cresap Ord and for whom Fort Ord was named) remained in Cuba for nine months as interpreter on the staff of General Alexander R. Lawton while the rest of the regiment prepared for service in the Philippines.

Philippine–American War By 1900 the 22d Regiment was en route piecemeal to the Philippines when the Philippine–American War broke out. They participated in battles in Manila, Luzon, Malolos, San Isidro then other battles during the Moro Rebellion on Mindanao and Jolo. On March 18, 1899, two companies of the regiment were ambushed by Filipino insurgents. After receiving exaggerated reports of the ambush which claimed that the regiments had been wiped out, the 2nd Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment was ordered to kill all Filipinos in a district between the mouth of San Mateo River and the lake. By 1905, the regiment had returned to garrison duty in the San Francisco region.

San Francisco earthquake

On 18 April 1906, just after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, recently retired Captain Edward Ord of the 22nd Infantry Regiment was appointed a Special Police Officer by San Francisco Mayor Eugene Schmitz and liaisoned with Major General Adolphus Greely for relief work with the 22nd Infantry and other military units involved in the emergency. Ord later wrote a long letter to his mother on 20 April regarding Schmitz's "shoot-to-kill" order and some "despicable" behavior of certain soldiers of his former regiment from the Presidio who were looting. At the same time, Ord also made it clear that the majority of soldiers served the community well.

From June 1908 to August 1910 the 22nd Infantry was posted to Alaska to maintain the Alaskan telegraph line between Fairbanks and Nome. This posting would be one of the last large-scale presence of Army troops since the 1898 gold rush and before the telegraph was replaced with a series of wireless stations. The regiment deployed about two companies each to Fort Seward in Haines, Fort Liscomb in Valdez, Fort St. Michael in St. Michael, Fort Davis in Nome, Fort Gibbon in Tanana, and Fort Egbert in Eagle.

World War I From the Presidio, the regiment was called to Mexican border in Arizona during the Mexican Punitive Expedition in early 1916. While not joining in the pursuit of Pancho Villa, they guarded the border region around Douglas, Arizona, and maintained the peace in that area during their time there.

While still in Douglas, Arizona, the 22nd Regiment was set for a return deployment to the Philippines, but orders directed it to the East Coast at Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York, New York, quietly arriving there by train and ferry on 2 April 1917.

Just days later, in the early morning of 6 April 1917, just moments after the declaration of war against Germany, the regiment boarded Coast Guard cutters and seized German owned freighters, passenger ships and shipping terminals along the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey and in New York Harbor. Theirs was the first American military action to be taken in World War I. The docks and piers seized in Hoboken were the basis of the New York Port of Embarkation from where tens of thousands of troops would depart to France, with the German cruise ships serving as troop transports.

The regiment was the largest organized combat-ready Army presence in New York City during the war where it was engaged in homeland protection duties: guarding tunnels, bridges, rail lines and other important transportation infrastructure that moved troops and material for the war to the city and port. One battalion was also posted to Washington, D.C. as the primary Army presence in that city, where they also protected vital transportation and military infrastructure.

Interwar period

The 22nd Infantry was stationed at Fort Jay as of June 1919 as a separate regiment. It provided guards for the subtreasury building at Wall and Nassau Streets after the 16 September 1920 Wall Street bombing by a Marxist dissident. The 2nd Battalion was transferred in 1921 to Fort Niagara, New York. The 3rd Battalion was transferred to Fort Ontario, New York. The entire regiment was transferred on 14 June 1922 to Fort McPherson, Georgia, and assigned to the 4th Division on 24 March 1923. The 3rd Battalion was transferred on 27 May 1927 to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. The 1st Battalion was inactivated 30 June 1927 at Fort McPherson. Company M was awarded the Edwin Howard Clark trophy for machine gun marksmanship for 1931. In April 1933, the regiment assumed command and control of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) District B, Fourth Corps Area. The regiment assumed command and control of CCC District D, Fourth Corps Area in May 1935 from the 69th Coast Artillery. The 3rd Battalion was transferred on 28 May 1935 to Fort McClellan, Alabama. Assigned Reserve officers conducted summer training with the regiment at Fort McClellan. The entire regiment was transferred in July 1940 to Fort McClellan, and was transferred 21 February 1941 to Fort Benning, Georgia.

World War II

The 22nd then moved to Camp Gordon, Georgia on 27 December 1941, where it was reorganized under a "motorized" table of organization and equipment (TO&E) on 9 September 1942.

The regiment moved to Fort Dix, New Jersey on 16 April 1943, where it was reorganized under a regular infantry TO&E on 1 August 1943. The regiment continued to train for combat, moving on to Camp Gordon Johnston, Florida on 28 September 1943, and to Fort Jackson, South Carolina on 1 December 1943. 22nd IR subsequently got its Port Call orders, and staged at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on 8 January 1944 until it shipped out from the New York Port of Embarkation on 18 January 1944.

The regiment arrived in England on 29 January 1944, settled in near Plymouth, England, and started preparations to assault Utah Beach.

The regiment assaulted Utah Beach on 6 June 1944, as part of VII Corps in the D-Day Invasion and arrived in the vicinity of Ravenoville, Normandy, by the end of D-day. It then participated in the Cherbourg Peninsula operation while attached to 2nd Armored Division from 19 July through 2 August 1944.

The regiment then returned to 4th Infantry Division and headed for Belgium as part of the Operation Cobra, moved into Belgium on 6 September 1944, and entered Germany on 11 September 1944. On 14 September its 3d Battalion broke through the Siegfried Line near Buchet, but neither the regiment nor other formations of 4th Division were able to exploit a success because of rough terrain lacking good roads, bad weather hampering air and artillery support and several other causes. These developments were described by Ernest Hemingway in his article War in the Siegfried Line.

The regiment was attached to 83rd Infantry Division between 3–7 December 1944, and then returned to 4th Infantry Division in Luxembourg on 12 December 1944. The 22d then moved to Belgium on 28 January 1945, and re-entered Germany on 7 February 1945, where it remained on mop-up and occupation until 12 July 1945, when it returned to the New York POE, and moved to its temporary home at Camp Butner, North Carolina while the regiment trained for movement to Japan; however, the war in the Pacific terminated, and the regiment remained at Camp Butner until it was inactivated on 5 March 1946.

1st Battalion The 1st Battalion, 22d Infantry Regiment, was originally constituted on 3 May 1861 in the Regular Army as Companies A and I, 2nd Battalion, 13th Infantry. It organized in May 1865 at Camp Dennison, Ohio. It reorganized and was redesignated on 21 September 1866 as Companies A and I, 22nd Infantry.

Companies A and I, 22nd Infantry consolidated on 4 May 1869 and the consolidated unit was designated as Company A, 22d Infantry; the 22nd Infantry being assigned on 24 March 1923 to the 4th Division [later redesignated as the 4th Infantry Division]. It inactivated on 30 June 1927 at Fort McPherson, Georgia.

The unit reactivated on 1 June 1940 at Fort McClellan, Alabama, before inactivating on 1 March 1946 at Camp Butner, North Carolina.

It reactivated 15 July 1947 at Fort Ord, California. It reorganized and was redesignated on 1 April 1957 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battle Group, 22d Infantry and remained assigned to the 4th Infantry Division (with its organic elements being concurrently constituted and activated).

It was reorganized and redesignated on 1 October 1963 as the 1st Battalion, 22d Infantry. It was deployed to South Vietnam as part of the 2d Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division and conducted operations in the Central Highlands.