4.6 by 4.7 inches
Mort Cohen collection
The 14th Infantry Regiment was constituted andorganized in direct response to President Abraham Lincoln’s request on 3 May 1861 for 39 regiments of Infantry and a regiment of cavalry; that same day, the 14th was constituted as the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry and subsequently organized on 1 July 1861 at Fort Trumbull, Connecticut.
Between 1862 and the end of the war, the 14th had taken part in a dozen campaigns and had acquitted itself so well that General George Meade awarded it the place of honor at “the Right of the Line” during the the Grand Review of the Armies in May, 1865 in Washington—a phrase that now serves as the unit’s motto.
Since that time, the Regiment as a whole has earned campaign participation credits from the Indian Wars, the War with Spain, the China Relief Expedition, Philippine Insurrection, World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam, but of course some of the units that became Battalions in the Regiment have lineages with campaign participation in other conflicts (the 2nd Battalion, for instance, has earned credit for three campaigns in the Global War on Terrorism). Of the five Battalions that at one time or another were part of the 14th Infantry, only one is still active.
The 14th Infantry Regiment Regimental Distinctive Insignia celebrates the Regiment’s success in the China Relief Expedition with an Imperial Chinese dragon symbolizing its key role at the Battle of Yangcun in 1900; the image is the source of the Regiment’s nickname “Golden Dragons.” The wall behind the dragon denotes the Regiment’s presence when Manila was captured during the War with Spain in 1899.
