14th Infantry Regiment
Modern Era, United States, Infantry
The 14th Infantry Regiment was one of the Regular Army regiments created during the Civil War expansion of 1861. It served through the western and frontier years that followed, building a career typical of the postwar Army in garrison, field expeditions, and periodic overseas service. Over time the regiment developed the "Golden Dragons" identity that later became closely associated with service in Asia and the Pacific.
In the twentieth century the regiment first entered divisional service through the 19th Division in World War I, but that late-war formation saw little combat before the Armistice. Afterward the regiment moved through the interwar Army and eventually into World War II service with the 71st Infantry Division. That division, initially formed as a light division and later redesignated as a standard infantry division, carried the 14th Infantry into the final campaigns in Germany and Austria in 1945.
The postwar years shifted the regiment toward the Pacific. Battalions of the 14th Infantry served with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and later in Southeast Asia, giving the regiment a modern combat association different from its World War II parent formation. In this respect, the regiment's twentieth-century history bridged two distinct divisional identities: the 71st Infantry Division in World War II and the 25th Infantry Division in the Pacific-centered Cold War Army.
The 14th Infantry is therefore best understood as a Regular Army lineage that moved from the Civil War expansion to late-war European service in World War II and then into the Pacific-oriented combined-arms force of the postwar Army. Its later battalions carried that lineage into modern training and operational roles while preserving the older regimental history.
Battalion Page
A dedicated battalion subpage now collects the regiment's known battalion icons and short sketches for the 1st, 2d, and 3d Battalions. Open the 14th Infantry Regiment Battalions page.