| 4th Infantry Regiment | |
|---|---|
4th Infantry coat of arms |
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| Active | March, 1812–31 January 1947; 1 October 1948– Present. |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | Infantry |
| Type | Regiment |
| Role | Infantry |
| Size | Three battalions |
| Garrison/HQ | 1st Battalion: Hohenfels, Germany
2nd Battalion: Fort Polk, LA 3rd Battalion: Baumholder, Germany (July 2009) |
| Nickname | "Warriors"[1] |
| Motto | Noli Me Tangere (Don't Tread on Me) |
| Colors | Blue and White |
| Engagements | Tecumseh's War |
| Insignia | |
| Distinctive Unit Insignia | |
| U.S. Infantry Regiments | |
|---|---|
| Previous | Next |
| 3rd Infantry Regiment The Old Guard | 5th Infantry Regiment |
The U.S. 4th Infantry Regiment ("Warriors"[1]) is an infantry regiment in the United States Army. It has served the United States for approximately two hundred years.
It has been alleged that the regiment traces its lineage to the original Fourth United States Infantry, which was organized as the Infantry of the Fourth Sub-Legion on 4 September 1792, only four years after the adoption of the Constitution. The infantry of the Fourth Sub-Legion fought at Miami Rapids in 1794. In 1796, it was re-designated the Fourth Regiment of the Infantry. The regiment existed for ten years, as a youthful country experimented to obtain a military force to its needs. Due to a reduction in the army, the regiment was disbanded in 1802. However, according the United States Army Center of Military History, this Fourth Infantry was a temporary unit with no lineal connection to either the original permanent 4th Infantry Regiment, or the modern 4th Infantry Regiment. See Lineage first 4th US Infantry below.
Threatening war clouds caused the Regular Army to be reorganized in 1808 to meet the growing threat posed by the Indian nations which lived on the western boundaries of the United States. The first permanent Regular Army unit to bear the designation of 4th Infantry Regiment was constituted on 12 April 1808 in the Regular Army, and organized during May–June 1808 in New England.
Under the leadership of General William H. Harrison, the 4th Infantry was sent into the Northwest Territories, which included Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Its mission was to eliminate the threat posed by a union of Indian tribes from the surrounding area. The hostile actions of these tribes were effectively stopping settlement of this vast area. General Harrison, who was later to become a United States President, led the 4th Infantry and a force of militia and volunteers against the Indians at Tippecanoe. During this famous battle, the American forces completely routed the Indians, bringing peace to the area, but at a cost of 188 dead. The regiment then returned to Fort Knox in Vincennes, and in 1812, after a trying march through the forests of Ohio, joined forces with General William Hull.
Within months of the Battle of Tippecanoe, war was declared against Great Britain. This required the increased manning of the Regular Army.
The modern 4th Infantry Regiment was constituted 11 January 1812 in the Regular Army as the original 14th Infantry Regiment, and organized in March 1812 in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.
On 12 July, General Hull crossed with his command into Canada, and made camp at Sandwich (now Windsor), Canada, just on the Canadian border. The regiment remained inactive for the rest of the month and grew restless. Then the Fourth was given a mission of escorting some supplies into Camp Detroit; previous escorts having been surprised and routed. The Fourth Infantry undertook this duty enthusiastically, and although ambushed at Maguage, fourteen miles below Detroit, by a superior force of British, Canadians, and Indians, the American regulars captured the enemy's concealed breastworks, wounded Chief Tecumseh, and completely routed their opponents.
Before they could follow up on their success and complete the victory, the Fourth received orders from General Hull to return to Detroit. There, the Fourth found out that General Hull had surrendered his entire force to include the Fourth led by Captain Cook to Lieutenant Bullock of the 41st Regiment on 16 August 1812 at Fort Detroit, Michigan.[2] For this General Hull was tried and found guilty of "Cowardliness" and "Neglect of Duty". President Monroe, mitigating the court-martial sentence that General Hull be shot, ruled: "The rolls of the army shall no longer be debased by having upon them the name of Brigadier General Hull". The Fourth Infantry's colors taken by the British (through no fault of the regiment) were kept in the Tower of London until 1889, then the colors for many years hung in the Chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea until 1961. They are currently in the Welch Regiment Museum.
After remaining several months in Canada as prisoners of war, the officers and men were returned under parole to Boston and given furloughs until exchanged for British prisoners of war. Early in 1813 the exchange was effective and the regiment reassembled and recruited to strength. It fought at La Cole Hill, Canada and at Plattsburgh in 1814, thus cleansing the bloodstain thrust upon it by General Hull.
Following the end of the War of 1812, and consistent with the reduction in force of the Regular Army, the original 4th Infantry Regiment was consolidated on May–October 1815 with the 9th and 13th Infantry (both constituted 11 January 1812), the 21st Infantry (constituted 26 June 1812), the 40th Infantry (constituted 29 January 1813), and the 46th Infantry (constituted 30 March 1814) to form the 5th Infantry Regiment. Thereafter separate lineage.
In the same time period the 14th Infantry Regiment was consolidated May–October 1815 with the 18th Infantry Regiment and 20th Infantry Regiment (both constituted 11 January 1812) and the 36th Infantry Regiment and 38th Infantry Regiment (both constituted 29 January 1813) to form the modern 4th Infantry Regiment. On 21 August 1816 Unspecified 4th Infantry Regiment companies were redesignated as Companies A and B, 4th Infantry Regiment. These companies would later be instrumental in the reorganization of 4th Infantry Regiment from the original organizational model, which included a headquarters element and 13 lettered Companies with no Battalion organization, to one with the 13 lettered Companies divided between two Battalions. The original Companies A and B would become Headquarters and Headquarters Company 1st and Headquarters and Headquarters Company 2nd Battalion.
For the next twenty years, the regiment fought almost constantly with the Creek Indians in Georgia, and the Seminoles in Florida under the command of General Andrew Jackson, a future president. In constant and long hardships the regiment marched through swamps, building cantonments and raking roads to open what now is the state of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. A letter of Gen. Lorenzo Thomas stated: “Each company built its own double block of logs and a house of one story for the officers quarters. The troops also saved the boards for flooring, and rived the pine shingles for roofs. In truth, the troops did the entire work, the quartermaster department only furnishing the few tools to work with, such as nails and other hardware. Scarcely a nail was used to secure the shingles, they being hung on the rafters with wooden pegs. The spaces between the logs were chinked with moss and clay and afterward the whole was whitewashed. All completed with scarcely any expense to the government."
In December 1835, Osceola's Seminoles cut the line of communication and supply to one of the border stations, Fort King. One hundred artillerymen from Fort Brooke under Major Gardner were ordered to re-establish the contact. At the last moment, Major Gardner's bride of a few weeks fell ill. Captain and Brevet-Major Francis L. Dade of the Fourth Infantry gallantly volunteered to take command for Major Gardner. Gallantly, because post gossip had it that it had been a fair wager as to whether the lady would become Mrs. Gardner or Mrs. Dade. Major Dade's offer was accepted and he joined the expedition with eleven men of B Company, Fourth Infantry. The march was begun on 20 December, on the 28th, after a cheerless Christmas on the trail and still forty miles short of Fort King; Major Dade ran his little column into a trap of the wily Indian, Osceola. The only survivors of the affair were three badly wounded privates who reported the command had fought stubbornly from eight in the morning until five at night when, their ammunition exhausted, they went down, outnumbered, under Seminole hatchets. Those who died or were wounded were: Francis L. Dade, Brevet Maj., Pvt. John Barnes, Pvt. Donald Campbell, Pvt. Marvin Cunningham, Pvt. John Doughty, Pvt. Cornel Donovan, Pvt. William Downes, Pvt. Enoch Yates, Pvt. Samuel Hall, Pvt. Wiley Jones, Pvt. John Massacre, suffering some casualties: Pvt. David Hill was killed at Fort Call on 21 Aug. 1836, Pvt. David Mclaughlin and Pvt. William Walker were killed at Thonotosassa on 26 Aug. 1836, Sgt. Levi Clendening was killed at Chrystal River on 9 Feb. 1837, Pvt. Othiel Lutz, Pvt. John Stewart, and Pvt. Bathol Shumard were killed at Okeechobee on 25 Dec. 1837, and Pvt. William Foster was killed at Big Cypress on 20 Dec. 1841.
By 1842, the Fourth Infantry had caught up with the Indians and Osceola was on his way to a cell at Moutrie in which he would remain until his death. Hostile tribes that lived in these areas fled west of the Mississippi. The death roll of one company for one year includes casualties from the elusive savages, cholera, and five diagnosed types of fever. The same death roll has the entry "Intemperance" after two more soldier's names. In Orders No. 15, Western Army, 28 August 1832, General Winfield Scott states: "The senior surgeon recommends the use of flannel shirts, flannel drawers and woolen stockings, but the Commanding General, who has seen much of the disease [Cholera] knows that it is intemperance which generates and spreads the calamity and that, when spread, good and temperate men are likely to be infected. He therefore peremptorily commands that every soldier or ranger who shall be found drunk or sensibly intoxicated, after publication of this order, be compelled, as soon as his strength will permit, to dig a grave at a suitable burying place large enough for his own reception, as such a grave cannot fail soon to be wanted for the drunken man himself or for one of his drunken companions. This order is given as well to serve as a punishment for drunkenness as to spare good and temperate men the labor of digging graves for their worthless companions."
In 1842, the regiment was ordered to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where after half a century of existence the regiment enjoyed for the first time the comforts of a regular post. The regiment trained at Jefferson barracks for two years when in 1844, it was ordered to the western border of Louisiana for the war with Mexico. Hostilities were precipitated by the murder of Colonel Cross and the slaughter of a lieutenant with a small detachment of 4th Infantry soldiers by Mexican Raiders. Although this happened in April, communications were slow and it was not until September that the command sailed to Corpus Christi, Texas, where with the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th Infantry regiments, one artillery regiment acting as Infantry, seven companies of Dragoons, and four companies of light artillery formed the Army of Observation under General Zachary Taylor. The pay was seven dollars a month and flogging was the usual means of punishment. U.S. Grant, then a lieutenant in the 4th Infantry stated; " A more efficient army, for its members and armament, I do believe ever fought a battle than that one commanded by General Taylor in his first two fights in Mexico". The Army of Observation soon became the Army of Occupation. Certain it is that on the fields of Palo Alto, Resaca De La Palra, and at the desperate struggle of Monterey, where the regimental band of the Fourth found their role of spectators no longer supportable and, throwing away their instruments, they rushed a Mexican light battery, seized it, and swung it about upon their fleeing enemy. According to the official citation, the breast cord of honor given them and their successors was made red, the artillery's color, to show that they were expert artillerymen as Infantrymen. The 4th set a standard of courage seldom equaled and never surpassed; General Taylor was blessed with great leadership like Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant and Captain Robert E. Lee serving as a company commander of engineers. These battles had a great influence in molding the leaders of the American Civil War, which followed.
General Taylor having successfully invaded Northern Mexico moved the base of active operations to Vera Cruz on the east coast. In January 1847, the 4th Infantry was taken by sea to the port of Vera Cruz and after a siege, the city capitulated. General Scott commanding the Army at Vera Cruz ordered the advance on the capital, Mexico City, in April. On 17 April and 18th General Scott's forces moved through the mountain pass at Gerro Gordo, where General Santa Anna lost his wooden leg in a hasty retreat. The Mexican soldiers fought well and the pass was won only after desperate attacks. The passage of the Lava Fields, the battle of Cherubusco, the assault in Molino del Ray and the final storming of Chapultepec, the citadel of the regiment, reflected great credit upon the 4th Infantry.
At the finish of the war the 4th Infantry left from Vera Cruz, and reached Camp Jeff Davis, Pascagoula, Mississippi on 23 July 1848. The regiment was ordered to proceed by sea to New York and to take station at several different points on the lakes, between Mackinac and Platsburg. Ordinary garrison duties were performed until June 1852.
The regiment was consolidated at Fort Columbus, New York to board the SS Ohio and travel to Aspinwall, on the Isthmus of Panama on 5 July 1852. Their mission was to travel across the Isthmus of Panama set up camp on the Pacific coast to protect early settlers of the Pacific Northwest. After a long journey on the overcrowded ship (1,100 officers, men and camp followers) the regiment safely reached Aspinwall on 16 July 1852. The rainy season was at its height on the Isthmus, and worse, Cholera was raging. Transportation was lacking for the trip across the Isthmus of Panama, the jungles, mountains, and rivers were difficult to cross; and cholera decimated the organization as well as the families who accompanied the men. The total deaths from cholera, fever, and allied diseases from the time the regiment arrived on the Isthmus to a few weeks after the arrival at Benica on the west coast, amounted to one officer and 106 enlisted men. On arrival on the Pacific coast, the regiment was distributed among many small posts. Vancouver Barracks, Fort Townsend, Fort Hoskins, Fort Humboldt, Fort Dalles, Fort Steilacoom, Fort Jones, Fort Boise, Fort Lane,[3] Fort Reading,[4] Fort Yamhill, Orford, Fort Walla Walla, Crook, Fort Ter-Waw, Fort Cascades, Fort Simcoe, Fort Gaston, Chehalis, Fort Yuma, and Fort Mohave were all garrisoned and many of them built by the 4th Infantry at some time between 1852 and 1861. While most of these posts are now forgotten, or remembered only through the cities which have sprung up around their sites, they played an important part in the protection of the Pacific Northwest.
Major Granville O. Haller of the 4th Infantry led an expedition from Fort Dalles into central Washington, and Lieutenant William A. Slaughter also of the 4th Infantry with forty-eight men from Fort Steilacoom crossed Natchez Pass to aid Major Haller when attempts to move the Indians of Puget Sound onto reservations caused trouble between them and some white settlers. Captain Maloney of the 4th Infantry, and Captain Gilmore Hayon of the Washington Volunteers had started for Yakima via Natchez Pass when they were overtaken on 29 October 1855 by the Nisqually tribe under Chief Leschi. Lt. Slaughter and his men plus Captain Hayes force met the hostile Indians at the crossing of the White River, and on 4 November 1855 fought without decisive results. The following day the troops met hostiles in the difficult country between the White and Green Rivers. The troops fell back into the valleys and on 24 November 1855, Lt. Slaughter commanding a platoon of the 4th Infantry and a Company of volunteers was attacked in his camp at Puyallup. The Lieutenant moved to the present site of Auburn and here again the Indians attacked. The gallant young officer and two corporals of the volunteer company were killed, four other men were injured, one later dying of his wounds. For years the town, which sprang up on this site, was known as Slaughter in honor of this officer of the 4th Infantry; it was later changed to Auburn.
During the hostilities great numbers of settlers had taken refuge at Fort Steilacoom, the woman and children being left there, while the men enrolled in the volunteers. Ezar Meeker, one of the settlers, pays the following tribute to First Lieutenant John Nugen of the Fourth Infantry, commanding Fort Steilacoom while Captain Maloney was in the field.
Hostile tribes attacked Seattle on 26 January 1856, and two settlers were killed. Meanwhile the regular forces were augmented by additional companies of the 4th Infantry from Vancouver Barracks and by three companies of the 9th Infantry. On 12 February 1856, they moved from Fort Steilacoom and were joined by Chief Patkanim with friendly Indians. This force advanced against the hostiles at Mucleshoot, losing one man and nine wounded, in a second battle on the White River overrunning the Indian encampment. Leshi retreated through Natches Pass and surrendered to Colonel. Wright, the commanding officer of the 4th Infantry, who had been conducting a vigorous campaign against the Yakima Indians and their allies, while the action in the west was occurring. By the close of the Leschi War, the 4th Infantry included in its present and past roster of officers such distinguished names as those of Robert C. Buchanan, Christopher C. Augur, Alden, William Wallace Smith Bliss, Ulysses S. Grant, Philip Sheridan, Henry M. Judah, DeLancey Floyd-Jones, R.N. Scott, Lewis Cass Hunt, Granville O. Haller, Henry C. Hodges, Waller, David Allen Russell, Henry Prince, Benjamin Alvord, August Kautz, Robert Macfeely and George Crook. After the regiment returned in 1861 to garrison at Washington D.C., those officers continued careers which covered their names with glory in the American Civil War.
In 1859, General William S. Harney ordered the occupation of San Juan Island as part of the territory of the United States. Three companies of the Fourth Infantry and one of the Ninth, under the command of Captain George Pickett, did the occupying. The British commander, fortified by five men-of-war, 2,000 sailors and marines, disagreed with General Harney's Geography. One hundred sixty-seven British guns aboard the five ships were trained upon the Fourth infantry camp when, in the lull before the first gunner's match was lit, an officer of the Fourth was invited to an official party of courtesy aboard the flagship. During casual professional conversation around the punch bowl, the American made a remark concerning a battle in the war between the Austrians and Napoleon III's FrancoSardinians, which was then in progress. The British admiral heard it.
It was September 1859; Magenta had been fought 4 June. To the British, the conclusion was obvious and upsetting. Evidently, news which reached the Americans from Washington was considerably fresher than that which England could furnish her Pacific Fleet. With the memory of Pakenham's bloody losses at New Orleans (in a battle fought after the war was ended) fresh in their minds, the British decided to wait. As it happened, the English commander was really the best informed man on the scene, as was proved by the subsequent arrival of General Winfield Scott with orders which vetoed General Harney's decision. The San Juan troops were quietly withdrawn, without bloodshed. If the Fourth infantryman had felt that he needed any further poetic justification, it was given him by news which finally came from Italy that there had been another battle after Magenta.
This incident in Puget Sound is called the Pig War.
In 1861 with the secession of a number of Southern states to form the new Confederate States of America, the regiment moved from its dispersed posts in the Department of the Pacific to Southern California to suppress any secessionist uprising. Charged with the supervision of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Santa Barbara Counties, on 14 August 1861, Major William Scott Ketchum made a rapid march on 26 August and encamped near San Bernardino, California with Companies D and G, later reinforced at the beginning of September by a detachment of ninety First U.S. Dragoons and a howitzer. Except for frequent sniping at his camp, this move stifled a secessionist uprising and prevented secessionist political demonstrations during the September California gubernatorial elections in San Bernardino County.[5][6]
In late October, 1861 the regiment was relieved by California Volunteer units and marched to San Pedro harbor where they waited for the balance of the regiment to gather before being transported to Washington D.C. to become part of the garrison in defense of the capital. The regiment was organized with other Regular Army units in the Volunteer Army as the First Brigade of George Sykes's "Regular Division" of the V Corps. The regiment's first Civil War engagement was in April and May 1862 during the Siege of Yorktown. By quick action at the Battle of Gaines Mill in June 1862, the Regulars saved Wood's and Tidball's artillery batteries from capture by Confederate infantry.
It participated as a part of the Army of the Potomac in the Second Battle of Bull Run and then the subsequent Maryland Campaign. At the Battle of Antietam, the regulars held the Middle Bridge over Antietam Creek, guarding the vital passage. They advanced towards the Confederate-held town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, late in the afternoon of 17 September 1862, before being recalled to their lines.
After seeing limited action at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, the regiment went into winter camp and saw no further combat for months. It formed part of Joseph Hooker's rear guard at Chancellorsville. Throughout the Gettysburg Campaign, the regiment served in the Regular Division under its newly promoted commander, Romeyn B. Ayres. During the Battle of Gettysburg, it was part of the fighting on the Second Day, helping push back Confederate infantry near Devil's Den and the Wheatfield.
Heavily depleted by battle casualties, the much-reduced regiment nevertheless continued to participate in the major campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, by 1864 under the command of Ulysses S. Grant during the Overland Campaign. The remaining men participated in the battles of Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, and the Siege of Petersburg. By the time the regiment manned the breastworks around Petersburg, a lieutenant, George Randall, was in command as the senior officer still present for duty.
On 22 June 1864, with less than 150 men left, the 4th Infantry reported to City Point, Virginia, to become Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s headquarters guard. The greatly reduced regiment was present at Appomattox Courthouse for Robert E. Lee's surrender. Grant, then commanding the armies of the Union, never forgot the 4th Infantry, with which he had served as a lieutenant in Mexico and on the frontier. As recognition of its valor during the Civil War, he designated it as the guard unit during the formal surrender ceremony.
Survivors of the 4th U.S. Infantry marched in the grand review of troops in Washington D.C. in May 1865, immediately following the war.
After Appomattox, the regiment returned to the West, now to Fort Laramie. On 31 March 1869 the regiment was consolidated with the original 30th Infantry, and the resulting consolidation retained the 4th Infantry designation. It is of special note that Companies A and B of each organization was carefully blended together to retain their original status. One casualty is noted as Pvt. Johnathan Schewen who died from an Indian attack on 9 December 1869 at Horse River, Wyoming. where the 4th fought with General Crook's Big Horn Expedition.
In 1871, parts of the Fourth went to Louisville to be split into small detachments to chivvy moonshiners about the Kentucky hills for a year, while other parts stayed to fight Indians. Sgt. Patrick Sullivan of the 4th was ambushed and murdered by outlaws on 4 March 1876 at Fort Fetterman, Wyoming and Maj. Thomas T. Thornburgh was killed in an Indian attack on Sept. 29, 1879 at Milk River, Colorado-during the Meeker Massacre {Thornburgh and 12 others killed and 43 wounded. See [1]}.
The 4th served under Crook in the Battle of the Rosebud, where Crook ordered the infantry to advance to the bluffs on foot in support of his Indian allies. The men of Co. D, 4th Infantry, led by Capt. Avery B. Cain, were the first to reach the crest of the ridge north of the Rosebud, where they opened fire. Companies C, G and H, 9th Infantry, and Co. F, 4th Infantry, supported the charge. The success of the infantry was critical to the outcome of the battle. Their enhanced firepower kept the Indians at bay, while cavalrymen made their horses ready. In moving forward, the foot soldiers found a Crow warrior leaning against a tree, where he urged on his companions, yelling like a madman. This was Bull Snake, whose thighbone had been shattered when he exposed himself on a bravery run. Also wounded here was Fox-Just-Coming-Over-Hill, renamed Old Coyote, shot through the shoulder.
In 1892–1893, under Colonel Robert Hall, the Fourth escorted Coxey's Army through Washington and Idaho guarding the Northern Pacific Railway from disorder arising from the march of Coxey's Army.
In 1898, the Fourth went east and embarked from Tampa to Cuba on the steamer "Concho". Landing at Daiquiri, the regiment participated in the battle of El Caney and the occupation of Santiago. Fever decimated the command and the campaign ended.
The Fourth returned to New York in August 1898. Quickly recruited at Fort Sheridan, the regiment sailed in January 1899 for Manila via the Suez Canal.
The Fourth Infantry, or units of it, participated in fights of La Loma church, Wariquima, Dismarinias, Imus, Puento Julien, and elsewhere in the Philippines, finally capturing LT. General Trias, second in command to Aquinaldo. On 20 November 1899, Private John C. Wetherby, Co. L, 4th Infantry, was near Imus, Luzon, Philippine Islands when he was wounded carrying important orders on the battlefield, unable to walk, he crawled at a great distance in order to deliver his orders. Private Wetherby, received the Medal of Honor for his actions.
On 2 July 1901, 2Lt Allen J. Greer of the 4th Infantry was near Majada, Laguna Province, Philippine Islands when he charged alone an insurgent outpost with his pistol, killing 1, wounding 2, and capturing 3 insurgents with their rifles and equipment. For his actions, 2Lt. Greer received the Medal of Honor.
On 23 November 1901, 1LT. Louis J. Van Schaick, was pursuing a band of insurgents, near Nasugbu, Batangas, Philippine Islands, and was the first to emerge from a canyon, and seeing a column of insurgents and fearing they might turn and dispatch his men as they emerged one by one from the canyon, galloped forward and closed with the insurgents, thereby throwing them into confusion until the arrival of others of the detachment. 1Lt. Van Schaick received the Medal of Honor for his actions.
In 1902, the regiment returned to San Francisco, having circled the globe.
The regiment returned to the Philippines for another tour from 1903 till 1906.
In October 1906 the regiment moved to Wyoming in time to stop the Ute uprising, its last campaign against hostile Indians.
In 1908, the regiment was ordered to the Philippines for a third time, remaining until 1910.
Trouble with Mexico caused the regiment to be stationed on the Texas border in 1913; and in 1914 it took part in the occupation of Veracruz. Pvt. Herman C. Moore, 4th Infantry Regiment was killed during this conflict in October 1915. The regiment camped on the same grounds as it had in the U.S.-Mexican War of 1847, sixty-seven years before.
In 1917, the United States entered World War I. On 1 October 1917, the Fourth was assigned to 3d Division. Stationed at Fort Brown, Texas, the regiment recruited and trained up to strength and on the first anniversary of our entry into the war, left for France. The Fourth Infantry disembarked at Brest, France in 1918 and participated in the defensive actions of Aisne, Château-Thierry, Second Battle of the Marne, and in the Third Battle of the Aisne, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne offensives. The entire regiment was decorated with the French Croix de Guerre, having lost eighty percent of its men, under constant and grueling fire during thirty days on the line; the regiment was relieved by the 60th Infantry. On 7 October 1918 near Cunel, France, PFC John L. Barkley, Co. K, 4th Infantry was stationed in an observation post half a kilometer from the German line, on his own initiative repaired a captured enemy machinegun and mounted it in a disabled French tank near his post. Shortly afterward, when the enemy launched a counterattack against our forces, PFC Barkley got into the tank, waited under the hostile barrage until the enemy line was abreast of him and then opened fire, completely breaking up the counterattack and killing and wounding a large number of the enemy. Five minutes later an enemy 77-millimeter gun opened fire on the tank pointblank. One shell struck the drive wheel of the tank, but this soldier nevertheless remained in the tank and after the barrage ceased broke up a second enemy counterattack, thereby enabling American forces to gain and hold Hill 25. PFC Barkley received the Medal of Honor for his actions.
After a rest which the organization received six hundred replacements, it was marched to a position in the Forest De Passe, and on 9 November 1918, received orders to be on a moments notice. The men knew they were to take part in the final drive to encircle Metz, in the event the Germans did not accept terms of the proposed armistice. Preparations were being made for the departure on the morning of 11 November, when the end of the war was heralded by the French villagers; shouts of " Viva la Américains"-"Viva les Allies"-"Fini la Guerre" were heard following the German surrender. The Fourth Infantry served as part of the Army of Occupation in France, until 1919.
After returning to the United States, the Fourth Infantry was stationed at Camp Pike, Arkansas, and then moved to Camp Lewis, Washington, the site of which was part of the tribal grounds of Chief Leschi, the regiment’s enemy in 1855–56. In June 1922, the regimental headquarters, headquarters and service companies and second battalion of the regiment were sent to Fort George Wright, Washington, while the other two battalions occupied Fort Missoula, Montana and Fort Lawton, Washington. On 19 February 1925 the unit was permitted to wear the red-green-red distinctive unit insignia.
In 1927, the Third Battalion at Fort Lawton moved to Fort Lincoln, Maryland. After maneuvers in California in 1940, the 3rd battalion was redesigned as part of the 15th Infantry. Cadre made up a new 3rd Battalion from the remainder of the regiment and the transfer of two companies of the 32nd Infantry at Chilkoot barracks, Alaska. The 1st battalion, 4th Infantry pioneered military development of the strategic Alaskan territory. The rest of the regiment arrived shortly after and started clearing ground for what is now Fort Richardson. It was the first organization of such size to arrive in Alaska. The Fourth formed the nucleus for the Alaska Defense Command, to deter a Japanese invasion of Alaska. The Japanese began to build-up forces on the southern-most Alaskan Islands and the Fourth's major battle of the war was the battle of Attu, a Japanese held island. On 8 May 1943 soldiers of the Fourth climbed over the sides of their transport ships to land on Massacre Bay. Major John D. O'Reilly of Seattle, battalion commander, who was later to receive a battlefield promotion to lieutenant colonel for outstanding leadership, reported to Major General Landrem. Carrying extra rations and ammunition, the troops were marched directly to a battle sector, and they engaged the enemy less than 24 hours after they landed. On Attu Island, the First Battalion fought the Japanese at altitudes of 2000 feet on snow-covered mountains. Moving north along the high west ridge of Chichagof Valley on May 21, 1943 the battalion came up against strong enemy opposition from machine gun and sniper positions. Later that day, the battalion moved along the ridge to a point where visual contact was established with other American forces that had proceeded inland from the Holtz Bay area, on the opposite side of the Island.
After five straight days of strong enemy opposition, the First Battalion was pulled to the rear for rest and to prepare for their next mission. After a day's rest, the First Battalion was given the task of clearing entrenched Japanese defenders from the high peaks of Fish Hook Ridge. Covered only by mortar and machine gun fire, troops of Company A scaled steep cliffs while facing heavy enemy fire. Observers watching the action from a distance were fascinated by the spectacle. Small groups of soldiers were clearly visible as they slowly inched their way up to the enemy held peaks. One observer later said that the scene resembled a Hollywood adventure movie rather than reality. Many were wounded or killed, but the battalion on 27 May 1943 finally took a portion of a high rock on the northeast end of the ridge, giving them a commanding position overlooking the main ridge running east toward the Chichagof Valley.
The fighting continued into the night and by 1900 hours on the next day, the 4th Infantry had accomplished its mission. The Presidential Unit Citation was awarded to the 1st Battalion for its heroism during the attack on the peaks.[7] The next day, the American invasion force engaged and defeated 1,000 Japanese in a suicide counter-attack near Sarana Valley. The Fourth was given the task of combing the area of Chichagof Valley by active patrolling, hunting out and capturing or killing Japanese stragglers. This was the last engagement with the Japanese for the regiment. The Japanese had been driven from Alaska's Aleutian Islands, and the Fourth Infantry had added another battle streamer to the 29 already on its colors. But it had paid a high price, approximately five officers and sixty enlisted men died.
2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry participated in one of the first big troop movements by air, probably the largest up to that time. Early on the morning of 19 June 1942 the battalion was ordered to move to Nome, Alaska near the edge of the Arctic Circle, where unidentified planes were flying threatening an invasion. Only a small number of army transport planes were available. The situation was critical and orders required that the vanguard of the force, 20 anti-aircraft guns and their crews, be in Nome within 24 hours. All civilian air traffic in Alaska was stopped that day and every suitable airplane in the vicinity was requisitioned for the movement. The fleet of planes included Stinsons, Bellancas, and two old Ford Tri-motors. By midnight of the same day, after 39 individual trips, the anti-aircraft units had been moved to Nome and the big shuttle movement was under way. Despite weather that kept the planes on the ground part of the time, the entire force, along with all its equipment, with the exception of big field guns and similar heavy equipment, was transported to Nome in a period of 18 days. The movement would have been completed in a week had it not been for the unfavorable weather conditions. Cargo-carrying commercial planes coming in from China were used to supplement the air armada. The midnight sun, providing almost full 24 hours of daylight, made it possible for some of the planes to make two trips in a single day. Ammunition, rations, tents, even 37 millimeter guns and field kitchens, everything necessary to make the force self-sufficient were moved by air without one accident. Heavy weapons were brought up later by boat. The troops stepped out of the planes in Nome, equipped and ready to fight. The total flights came to 218. The troops maneuvered in weather from 20 to 35 degrees below zero. They found that none of the elaborate footgear provided by the army protected their feet as well as the native Mukluk, made by the Eskimos from deer and the hide of sealskins. The 2nd Battalion remained in Nome for a year, later moving to the Aleutians. First to Dutch Harbor then to Adak, where they became acquainted with other types of disagreeable weather.
The 3rd Battalion, which included two companies that were stationed at Chikoot Barracks for many years before the war, helped to establish two big bases, Fort Richardson and Ladd Field.
On 2 December 1943, the 4th returned to the United States, and after consolidating the regiment at Fort Lewis, Washington, it moved on 23 January 1944 to Fort Benning, Georgia, where it was assigned to the United States Army Replacement and School Command. On 1 November 1945, the 4th Infantry was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. The incumbent personnel and equipment were reassigned to the 4th Infantry Division, which was at Camp Butner, North Carolina, while the Regimental records and accoutrements were forwarded to Japan to establish a unit for Occupation Duty. This iteration of the 4th Infantry Regiment was inactivated on 31 January 1947, at Osaka, Japan. The Records and Accoutrements were returned to the United States and the 4th Infantry Regiment was relieved from assignment to the 25th Division on 1 February 1947.
The 4th was again activated on 1 October 1948 at Fort Lewis, Washington as the 4th Regimental Combat Team. It served in this assignment for six years with, the 1st Battalion being sent to Ft. Richardson, Alaska, and participating in Operation Sweetbrier, an exercise to determine if Alaska could be defended if an attack from the Soviet Union came from over the pole. It was then was assigned as an organic element of the 71st Infantry Division on 10 October 1954. On 15 September 1956, the 4th Infantry was assigned to the 4th Regimental Combat Team for the second time in this capacity and served for nearly a year. On 1 July 1957, the colors of Company B were relieved from assignment to the 4th Regimental Combat Team, reorganized and redesigned Headquarters Company, 2d Battle Group, 4th Infantry, and assigned as an organic element of the 3d Infantry Division with duty station at Fort Benning, Georgia. The remaining companies and a mortar battery to comprise the 2d Battle Group, 4th Infantry were organized for the 1st and 2d Battalions, 15th Infantry Regiment which were already stationed at Fort Benning.
On 22 July 1957, Colonel Seymore B. Satterwhite assumed command of the 2d Battle Group, 4th Infantry and by 20 July all personnel of the battle group were thoroughly oriented on the ROCID concept. By 15 September 1957 the battle group had completed its organization under ROCID TO&E 7-11T, 1956, thus cadre training commenced in preparation for receiving 1,189 new soldiers straight from civilian life that would bring the unit to combat strength. The 2d Battle Group, 4th Infantry received the first 26 men on 12 November 1957. The remainder of the men arrived shortly after, and all of the men completed their basic training in time to go on leave for Christmas. When they returned in January, training was resumed, and training of all phases was completed by 3 April 1958. On 15 February 1958, it officially was reorganized and redesignated Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2d Battle Group, 4th Infantry and assigned to the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division.
On that same date, the 1st Battle Group, 4th Infantry was assigned to the separate 2d Infantry Brigade.
Embarkation leaves were held during April, and on 13 May 1958, the 2nd Battle Group, 4th Infantry boarded the USNS Rose for Bremerhaven, Germany. The unit arrived in Bremerhaven on 22 May 1958 and reached Bamberg on 24 May 1958.
On 2 April 1962, the 1st Battle Group, 4th Infantry was inactivated at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.
On 18 April 1963 the 2d Battle Group, 4th Infantry was relieved from assignment to the 3d Infantry Division and the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry was redesignated and assigned to the 3d Infantry Division. On 3 June 1963, the 2d Battle Group, 4th Infantry was inactivated in Germany and on 5 June 1963 the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry was activated. The 2d Battle Group, 4th Infantry would later be activated (21 July 1969) as the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 3d Battle Group, 4th Infantry would become the 3d Battalion, 4th Infantry and be inactivated at Fairfield, Illinois on 31 December 1965.
In 1965, the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry joined the 3d Brigade, 3d Infantry Division in Aschaffenburg, Germany. Taking part in the many REFORGER training exercises in Germany. The battalion was named "Warrior" Battalion in 1966 to commemorate the long service by the regiment between fighting wars and later protecting Indians in Florida, the Pacific Northwest, and the Great Plains.
The 2d Battalion, 4th Infantry was reactivated on 21 July 1969. On 18 September 1970, the 56th Field Artillery Brigade, headquartered in Schwaebisch Gmuend, Federal Republic of Germany, assumed control of three Pershing missile firing battalions. The newly arrived 2d Battalion, 4th Infantry provided the infantry defensive support for the missile units. The unit defended the missile battalions from intruding protesters, from the Nationalist Green Party and other Soviet-backed elements.
The mission of the 2d Battalion, 4th Infantry was to provide armed security including patrols of the Pershing nuclear missile and missile storage sites — Muetlangen Missile Storage Site (Company A), Von Steuben (Company B), and Red Leg (Company C) Combat Alert Sites (CAS) additional duties included protecting Pershing nuclear systems in the field and dealing with numerous Eastern Block backed protests. It also pursued a rigorous infantry training schedule. Initially, HHC (Hurons) and Company A (Apaches) were stationed at Panzer Kaserne in Stuttgart; Company B (Blackfeet) was stationed at Nelson Kaserne in Neu Ulm; and, Company C (Cherokees) was stationed at Wharton Barracks in Heilbronn.
The 2d Battalion, 4th Infantry participated in major exercises each winter at training areas such as Baumholder, Hohenfels Hohenfels, Wildflecken, and Grafenwoehr. This helped to prepare the unit for encounters with Warsaw Pact military forces in the event of an assault on the missile sites. This was considered a very real possibility during the years of the Cold War. In addition each of the line companies rotated each year to Doughboy City, Berlin to train in Military Operations in an Urban Terrain (MOUT).
On 18 August 1971, soldiers from the heavy mortar platoon from battalion headquarters were being transported from Ludwigsburg to Grafenwoehr for live fire training exercises aboard a CH-47A helicopter. The helicopter crashed and exploded, killing all 38 on board, including four members of the 4th Aviation Company.[8][9]
In May 1983, the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry began to reorganize to the Division 86 concept in the Army of Excellence program by President Ronald Reagan, with the expectation of stopping a Soviet invasion of West Germany at the “Hofsburg Throat.” This caused the battalion to expand to four rifle companies, an anti-armor company and a very large headquarters and headquarters company.
In May 1984, the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry began to transition to the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle. The transition was completed in August 1984. In the late 1980s the government again began to reduce the armed forces and the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry was listed for inactivation, which took place on 16 December 1987 and the unit was relieved from assignment to the 3d Infantry Division. However, the battalion until then known as 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry (Warrior Battalion), then stationed in Aschaffenburg Germany, was reflagged as the 4th Battalion, 7th Infantry (Fighting Fourth), and remained in place as part of the 3d Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.
The signing of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty (1987), the fall of the Berlin Wall 1989), and the demise of the Soviet Union (1991) signaled the end of the Cold War and resulted in the eventual inactivation of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry. In May 1991, the 56th Field Artillery Command and all its subordinate units were inactivated. In the summer of 1990, Company C moved from its Pershing II mission and provided security for Operation Steel Box/Golden Python (chemical weapons retrograde from Germany) at Miesau Army Depot. The unit deployed to secure the temporary storage area at the Miesau rail head, guarding over 100,000 toxic chemical artillery projectiles in steel shipping containers. Company C received the Army Superior Unit Award for flawless execution of this security mission.[10] In November 1990, Company C was the first of the 2d Battalion units to move to the CMTC – Hohenfels, Germany to reactivate as Company C, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry and assume role as OPFOR.
The 2d Battalion, 4th Infantry was inactive until 2004 when it was reactivated at Fort Polk, Louisiana as part of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. The 2d Battalion, 4th Infantry deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2006.
The 3d Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment was reactivated on 16 October 2009 in Germany as part of the 170th Infantry Brigade[11]
On 16 November 1990, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry was assigned as the Opposing Force (OPFOR) at the Combat Maneuver Training Center (CMTC), Hohenfels, Germany. The battalion consists of three rifle companies, a tank company, a Combat Support Company, and a headquarters and headquarters company. The combat support company was disbanded in 1995 and the platoons reassigned to the HHC. In order to support the USAERUR commander’s training strategy the battalion portrays a brigade tactical group or an insurgency that challenges all the battlefield operating systems of rotational units in force-on-force situations.
The battalion has trained units deploying to Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraqi, and Afghanistan during High Intensity Conflict Rotations, and Mission Readiness Exercises. Additionally, the battalion has deployed forces to other countries to take part in training exercises to include the training of security forces for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
In addition to its OPFOR mission, the battalion has the same training requirements as other infantry battalions in the army. The battalion conducts squad external evaluations, tank gunnery, antitank gunnery, training for urban operations, marksmanship, and live fire exercises.
In August 2004 the battalion deployed Company A to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Team Apache was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC) for its outstanding performance of duty as the only US force in the International Security Assistance Force from August to December 2004.
The MUC citation reads: During the period of 31 August to 12 December 2004, Company A, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry distinguished themselves while in support of the International Security Assistance Force operations led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Afghanistan. They provided superb support to coalition forces supporting a safe and successful Afghanistan National Presidential Election. Throughout the operation the company performed as a lethal, responsive, and relevant combat force directly responsible for supporting security and stabilization forces in theater. Their ability to respond to crisis was superb. Company A, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry’s efforts reflect great credit upon themselves, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the United States Army.
In August 2005 the battalion deployed Company D to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Team Dragon was used as a force protection company for the newly formed Afghanistan elections. Team Dragon was awarded the Joint Meritorious Unit Commendation for its outstanding performance of duty. After a successful mission most of Team Dragon returned November 2006.
During 2006, the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry formed the core of a task force that deployed to Zabol Province in eastern Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom. Along with other elements of the 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, 2–4 Infantry and TF Boar conducted combat operations in support of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force.
Starting in July 2006 and ended in January 2011, the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry relieved its sister battalion in Zabol Province, Afghanistan, as part of ISAF's assumption of responsibility for the province. As part of TF Zabul, nominally under Romanian command, 1–4 maintained a reinforced infantry company in the mountainous northern regions of the province, responsible for all combat operations in that area. The battalion rotated companies every 7 to 8 months, starting with C Company, followed in turn by B, A, and D companies. While each task force was deployed, the remaining companies of 1–4 continued their OPFOR mission in Hohenfels, Germany as well as training for their next combat mission in Afghanistan.
2–4 Infantry deployed again in late 2007 to Iraq with 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, this time for 15 months as part of the "surge" strategy. Their deployment ended January 2009.
2-4 Infantry once again deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 under 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
As of January 7, 2011 the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry has halted all deployments to Afghanistan after C Company's return, and they now serve only as the OPFOR unit for Hohenfels, Germany.
Re-activated on 15 July 2009, at Baumholder, Germany (under the 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which was formerly 2/1 AD). See webpage for 3–4 Infantry at http://ironwarriorsix.web.officelive.com/default.aspx
This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Army Center of Military History document "4th Infantry Lineage and Honors".