7th Infantry Regiment (United States) - Lineage

Lineage

The regiment's official lineage is as follows:

• Constituted 11 January 1812 in the Regular Army as the 8th Infantry
• Organized in 1812 in Tennessee, Georgia, and the adjacent territories
• Consolidated May–October 1815 with the 24th Infantry (constituted 26 June 1812) and the 39th Infantry (constituted 29 January 1813) to form the 7th Infantry
• Consolidated May–June 1869 with the 36th Infantry (see ANNEX) and consolidated unit designated as the 7th Infantry
• Assigned 21 November 1917 to the 3rd Division (later redesignated as the 3rd Infantry Division)
• Relieved 1 July 1957 from assignment to the 3rd Infantry Division and reorganized as a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System
• Withdrawn 16 December 1987 from the Combat Arms Regimental System and reorganized under the United States Army Regimental System

ANNEX

• Constituted 3 May 1861 in the Regular Army as the 3d Battalion, 18th Infantry
• Organized 16 October 1861 at Camp Thomas, Ohio
• Reorganized and redesignated 26 December 1866 as the 36th Infantry
• Consolidated May–June 1869 with the 7th Infantry and consolidated unit designated as the 7th Infantry

Coat of arms

• Blazon:
  • Shield: Per fess Argent and Azure, a fess embattled to chief Or masoned Sable between in chief a field gun Gules on a mount Vert and in base three bendlets sinister of the first.
  • Crest: On a wreath of the colors (Argent and Azure), a cotton bale Argent banded Sable in front of the two bayonets in saltire Or.

• Motto: VOLENS ET POTENS (Willing and Able).

• Symbolism:
  • Shield: The shield is white and blue, the old and present Infantry colors. The field gun is for the battle of Cerro Gordo, where the 7th participated in the decisive attack by an assault on Telegraph Hill, a strongly fortified point. This portion of the shield is in Mexican colors—red, white and green. The wall is for the battle of Fredericksburg in which the Regiment held for twelve hours a position only eighty yards in front of a stone wall protecting the enemy. The base alludes to the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 3d Division with which the 7th Infantry served during World War I.
  • Crest: The cotton bale and bayonets in the crest are taken from the arms of the 7th Infantry adopted in 1912.
  • Background: The coat of arms was originally approved on 5 July 1921. It was amended on 15 Oct 1923 to add a new crest.