3rd Infantry Regiment
Modern Era, United States, Infantry
The 3rd Infantry Regiment, better known as The Old Guard, is the oldest active infantry regiment in the Regular Army. Its lineage begins on 3 June 1784 with the First American Regiment, organized to guard the frontiers of the new republic after the Revolution. It was redesignated as the Regiment of Infantry in 1789, the 1st Infantry in 1791, and then part of the Legion of the United States before returning to the 1st Infantry designation in 1796. In 1815, after the War of 1812, the Army consolidated several regiments and redesignated the combined unit as the 3d Infantry. That administrative change explains why the Army's oldest active infantry lineage now carries the number three rather than one.
The regiment fought in the early frontier wars of the United States and later in the War of 1812, earning campaign credit for Chippewa and Lundy's Lane. In the Mexican War it served in the hard-fought campaigns from Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma through Monterrey, Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec. According to long-standing Army tradition, General Winfield Scott referred to the regiment as "The Old Guard" in recognition of its steadiness in Mexico, a nickname that remained attached to the unit.
The 3rd Infantry also served through the Civil War, the Indian Wars, the War with Spain, and the Philippine Insurrection. Its official campaign credit includes Bull Run, the Peninsula, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Appomattox, along with frontier service against Seminole, Comanche, and other Native opponents. At Santiago in 1898 and in the Philippines after 1899, the regiment added overseas expeditionary service to a lineage that had begun on the early American frontier.
In the twentieth century the regiment's World War I service was spent on the Mexican border and in Texas security duty, not in an overseas combat division. During the interwar years it moved in and out of the Army's divisional structure: assigned to the 7th Division in 1923, transferred to the 6th Division in 1927, returned to the 7th Division in 1933, and then went back to the 6th Division in 1939. The regiment was relieved from the 6th Division on 10 May 1941, before the United States entered World War II. As a result, its World War II service was not as a standing regiment of one numbered division. Instead, elements served first in Newfoundland Base Command, then the regiment assembled in the United States, attached to XII Corps, and in 1945 deployed to France where it was attached to the reconstituted 106th Infantry Division for the mission of containing the German garrison at St. Nazaire before occupation duty in Germany.
After the war the regiment was inactivated in Germany in 1946 and reactivated in the Washington area in 1948. That reactivation marked the beginning of its modern ceremonial role as the Army's official escort unit, but the regiment remained an infantry formation with deployable battalions. In the Korean War era it did not deploy as a combat regiment to Korea; instead, its post-1948 identity centered on the Military District of Washington and the ceremonial and memorial duties for which the Old Guard is now best known.
Vietnam brought the regiment back into field service through separate battalion deployments. The 2nd Battalion was activated in 1966 and assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, serving in Vietnam in III Corps as part of that separate brigade. The 4th Battalion was activated in Hawaii, assigned to the 11th Infantry Brigade, and then deployed to Vietnam as part of that brigade's combat service. Those battalions earned the regiment's Vietnam campaign credit from Counteroffensive Phase II through Consolidation I, as well as the Valorous Unit Award for Saigon-Long Binh.
In the post-Cold War era the regiment continued both ceremonial service and operational deployments. Elements served in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the 2nd Battalion with the 3d Brigade (Stryker), 2nd Infantry Division in Iraq, while the regiment's 1st and 4th Battalions continued funeral honors, presidential ceremonies, and guard duties in the capital region. Today the 3rd Infantry Regiment remains a distinctive blend of history, public symbolism, and real military capability. Its motto, Noli Me Tangere, "Touch Me Not," links the modern Old Guard to more than two centuries of Army service.
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 3rd Infantry Regiment Battalions page.