21st Infantry Regiment (United States)
United States Army infantry regiment
The 21st Infantry Regiment ("Gimlet") is a United States Army infantry regiment. The 1st Battalion currently exists as part of 1st. Infantry Brigade, 11th Airborne Division (Artic Angels) at Fort Wainwright Alaska. The regiment fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, as well as Operation Iraqi Freedom. Task Force Smith, the first American unit to see action in the Korean War, was derived from the regiment's 1st Battalion.
History
Civil War
The 21st Infantry traces its history back to the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Infantry Regiment, formed on 3 May 1861 for the American Civil War. Companies A, B, E and G were activated at Fort Hamilton on 20 May 1862. They were sent to Harpers Ferry and on 26 May fought in a skirmish with a Confederate States Army brigade. The companies fought at the Battle of Cedar Mountain on 9 August. The companies were formed into a battalion with elements of the 8th Infantry Regiment and were the lead skirmishers of the II Corps' 2nd Division.
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This entry incorporates text from “21st Infantry Regiment (United States)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.