The 17th Infantry Regiment is a United States Armyinfantry regiment. An earlier regiment designated the 17th Infantry Regiment was organized on 11 January 1812, but it was consolidated with four other regiments as the 3rd Infantry in the post-war reorganization of the army following the War of 1812, due to the shattering losses it sustained at the River Raisin. The current 17th Infantry was constituted as the 17th Regiment of Infantry on 3 May 1861.
History
Civil War
The 17th Infantry Regiment served in the Army of the Potomac, in Sykes' Division of the 5th Army Corps. Its badge was a white cross patee.
During the Battle of Fredericksburg, the 17th Infantry suffered heavy losses in the assault on Robert E. Lee's Confederates entrenched behind a stone wall. "For one entire day, (December 14) the men of the 17th lay flat on their faces eighty yards in front of the famous stone wall, behind which the enemy was posted in large numbers and any movement on their part was sure to draw the fire of rebel sharpshooters."
On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the 17th Infantry regiment, commanded by ColonelJames Durrell Greene, fought in tough hand-to-hand combat in the Wheatfield. The 17th US Infantry lost 24 KIA and 125 WIA/MIA in this engagement.
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2021)
Coat of arms
A buffalo, displayed on a shield below the stone wall, represents the regiment's history in the Korean war. The "Buffalo" nickname was adopted at the suggestion of the 17th Regiment's commander in the Korean War, Col. William W. "Buffalo Bill" Quinn.[1][2]
The shield is blue, as it is the color of the infantry.
The crest is a sea lion taken from the Spanish Arms of Manila to represent the fighting for that city in 1898.
The five-bastioned fort, shown on the blue shield above and to the right of the stone wall, was the badge of the 5th Army Corps in Cuba in 1898.
The two arrows represent the Indian campaigns the 17th Regiment participated in.
The 17th Infantry Regiment was in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War in Sykes' Division of the 5th Army Corps, the badge of which was a white Cross pattée, which is embodied in the coat of arms and shown on the blue field above and to the left of the stone wall.
At Fredericksburg the 17th suffered heavy losses in the assault on the famous stone wall, "For one entire day, (December 14) the men of the 17th lay flat on their faces eighty yards in front of the famous stone wall, behind which the enemy was posted in large numbers and any movement on their part was sure to draw the fire of rebel sharpshooters.
Reorganized and redesignated 13 December 1866 as the 17th Infantry
Consolidated 1 June 1869 with the 44th Infantry, Veteran Reserve Corps (constituted 21 September 1866), and consolidated unit designated as the 17th Infantry
United States
United States Army
