16th U.S. Infantry

16th Infantry Regiment
Coat of arms
Active	1861 – present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army
Type	Infantry
Size	1 battalion (2nd Battalion inactivated 1 May 2015).
Garrison/HQ	Fort Riley, Kansas
Nickname(s)	"New York's Own" 1924-1941; "Rangers" 1948-Present
Motto(s)	"Semper Paratus" (special designation)
March	"Sidewalks of New York"
Anniversaries	4 October. On 4 October 1918, 16th Infantry was the only regiment in the entire First Army to take its regimental objectives in the U. S. Army’s opening attacks of the Meuse-Argonne campaign. The day is still celebrated as the regiment's Organization Day
Engagements	American Civil War Indian Wars Spanish–American War Philippine–American War Pancho Villa Expedition World War I World War II Vietnam War Gulf War Iraq War War in Afghanistan
Decorations	Presidential Unit Citation (5) Valorous Unit Award Army Superior Unit Award French Croix de Guerre (4)
Insignia
Distinctive unit insignia

American Civil War
Indian Wars
Spanish–American War
Philippine–American War
Pancho Villa Expedition
World War I
World War II
Vietnam War
Gulf War
Iraq War

The 16th Infantry Regiment ("Semper Paratus") is a regiment in the United States Army.

The 16th Infantry was constituted as the 11th U.S. Infantry on May 4, 1861. The 11th Infantry was organized by direction of the president May 4, 1861 and confirmed by the act on July 29, 1861. The regiment was organized into three battalions of eight companies each. On September 21, 1866 under the act of July 28, 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 May 4, 1861 and confirmed by the act of July 29, 1861 as the 16th Infantry Regiment. On September 21, 1866 under the act of July 28, 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.

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. 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.