16th Infantry Regiment
Modern Era, United States, Infantry
The 16th Infantry Regiment was constituted in 1861 during the Civil War and soon established itself as one of the Regular Army's enduring line regiments. It served in the Civil War, later on the frontier, and then in the Spanish-American War and Philippine-American War. By the early twentieth century it had become a seasoned regular regiment whose later history would be tied closely to one of the Army's most famous divisions.
That division was the 1st Infantry Division. In World War I the 16th Infantry was one of the original infantry regiments of the 1st Division in France, taking part in Cantigny, Soissons, Saint-Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, and other campaigns that established the division's reputation. In World War II it again served as a regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, landing in North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy and then fighting across western Europe into Germany.
The regiment's twentieth-century identity remained strongly tied to the 1st Infantry Division after 1945. During Vietnam, battalions of the 16th Infantry served once more under the 1st Infantry Division in heavy combat around Lai Khe, Phuoc Vinh, and elsewhere in III Corps. That continuity across both world wars and Vietnam makes the 16th one of the clearest examples of a regiment whose history became inseparable from one parent division.
In later decades battalions of the 16th Infantry continued to carry that lineage in Europe, the Middle East, and the modern U.S. Army. The regiment's story therefore links the Civil War Regular Army, the frontier and imperial campaigns, and repeated service with the 1st Infantry Division across the major conflicts of the twentieth century.
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 16th Infantry Regiment Battalions page.