116th Lineage and Honors

Organized 3 November 1741 in the Virginia Militia as the Augusta County Regiment with Headquarters at Beverley's Mill Place (later named Staunton).

Elements of the Augusta County Regiment called into active service at various times during the French and Indian War and Dunsmore's War and provided the following elements of the Virginia provincial forces:

     Captain Andrew Lewis' Company, Virginia Regiment (organized 18 March 1754)
     Captains William Preston's, David Lewis', and John Smith's Companies of Rangers (organized 11-25 August 1755)

Augusta County Regiment or its elements called into active service at various times during the Revolutionary War and provided the following elements of the Continental Army:

     Captain William Fontaines's Company, 2d Virginia Regiment (organized 21 October 1775)
     Captain John Hayse's Company, 9th Virginia Regiment (organized 16 March 1776)
     Captain David Stephenson's Company, 8th Virginia Regiment (German Regiment) (organized 25 March 1776)
     Captains David Laird's and John Symes' Companies, 10th Virginia Regiment (organized 3 December 1776)

Augusta County Regiment expanded 31 December 1792 to form the 32d and 93d Regiments

Elements of the 32d and 93d Regiments mustered into Federal service at various times during the War of 1812

32d and 93d Regiments expanded about 1839 to form the 32d, 93d, and 160th Regiments

Elements of the 32d and 160th Regiments mustered into Federal service 6 January 1847 at Richmond as the Light Infantry Company, 1st Regiment, Virginia Volunteers (also known as the Augusta Volunteers); mustered out of Federal service 27 July 1848 at Fort Monroe, Virginia

Augusta County volunteer infantry companies of the 32d, 93d, and 160th Regiments reorganized and redesignated 13 April 1861 as the 5th Regiment, Virginia Volunteers; mustered into Confederate service 1 July 1861 as the 5th Virginia Infantry, an element of the 1st Brigade, Army of the Shenandoah (later designated as the Stonewall Brigade) (organized 1 June - 15 July 1861 to consist of the 2d, 4th, 5th, 27th, and 33d Virginia Infantry (organized from volunteer companies in the Shenandoah Valley))

Remainder of the 32d, 93d, and 160th Regiments, Virginia Militia, mustered into Confederate service 1 May 1862 as the 52d Virginia Infantry

Stonewall Brigade and the 52d Virginia Infantry surrendered 9 April 1865 at Appomattox Court House with the Army of Northern Virginia

Former elements of the Stonewall Brigade and the 52d Virginia Infantry reorganized 1871-1881 in the Virginia Volunteers as separate infantry companies in the Shenandoah Valley

Reorganized 2 May 1881 as the 2d Regiment of Infantry with Headquarters at Staunton

(Location of Headquarters changed 22 April 1886 to Harrisonburg)

Regiment disbanded 2 April 1887 and its elements reorganized as separate infantry companies

Reorganized 20 April 1889 in the Virginia Volunteers as the 2d Regiment of Infantry with Headquarters at Winchester

(Location of Headquarters changed 15 June 1893 to Woodstock)

Consolidated with elements of the 1st Regiment of Infantry (organized in 1851) and mustered into Federal service 10-21 May 1898 as the 2d Virginia Volunteer Infantry; mustered out of Federal service 13-20 December 1898 at home stations

Disbanded 29 April 1899

Elements of the former 2d Regiment of Infantry reorganized 1899-1902 in the Virginia Volunteers as separate infantry companies in western Virginia

Consolidated 19 May 1905 with elements of the former 3d Regiment of Infantry (see ANNEX); consolidated unit reorganized as the 72d Infantry with Headquarters at Luray

Redesignated 1 September 1908 as the 2d Infantry

(Virginia Volunteers redesignated 3 June 1916 as the Virginia National Guard)

Called into Federal service 30 June 1916 at Camp Stuart, Virginia; mustered out of Federal service 28 February 1917 at Richmond

Called into Federal service 25 March 1917 and mustered in 25 March - 3 April 1917 at home stations

Drafted into Federal service 5 August 1917

Consolidated 4 October 1917 with the 1st Infantry (organized in 1851) and the 4th Infantry (organized in 1882); consolidated unit reorganized and redesignated as the 116th Infantry and assigned to the 29th Division

Demobilized 30 May 1919 at Camp Lee, Virginia

Former elements in western Virginia reorganized 12 October 1921 in the Virginia National Guard as the 2d Infantry

Redesigned 9 March 1922 as the 116th Infantry and assigned to the 29th Division (later redesignated as the 29th Infantry Division); Headquarters Federally recognized 3 April 1922 at Staunton

(Location of Headquarters changed 26 June 1933 to Lynchburg)

Inducted into Federal service 3 February 1941 at home stations

Inactivated 6 January 1946 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey

Reorganized and Federally recognized 24 March 1948 with Headquarters at Staunton

Reorganized 1 June 1959 as a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System to consist of the 1st and 2d Battle Groups, elements of the 29th Infantry Division

Reorganized 22 March 1963 to consist of the 1st and 2d Battalions, elements of the 29th Infantry Division

Reorganized 1 February 1968 to consist of the 1st, 2d and 3d Battalions, elements of the 28th Infantry Division

Reorganized 1 April 1975 to consist of the 1st, 2d and 3d Battalions, elements of the 116th Infantry Brigade

                                            ANNEX

Organized 13 June 1881 in the Virginia Volunteers from existing companies in central Virginia as the 3d Regiment of Infantry with Headquarters at Charlottesville

(Location of Headquarters changed 15 November 1888 to Culpepper; on 12 March 1898 to Warrenton)

Mustered into Federal service 13-26 May 1898 at Richmond as the 3d Virginia Volunteer Infantry; mustered out of Federal service 5 November 1898 at Richmond

Disbanded 29 April 1899

Elements of the former 3d Regiment of Infantry reorganized 1899-1902 in the Virginia Volunteers as separate
infantry companies in central Virginia
 
 

                     CAMPAIGN PARTICIPATION CREDIT

                                       116th INFANTRY

Revolutionary War

     Brandywine
     Germantown
     Monmouth
     Charleston
     Cowpens
     Guilford Court House
     Yorktown
     Virginia 1775
     Virginia 1776
     Virginia 1781
     South Carolina 1781
     North Carolina 1781

War of 1812

     Maryland 1814

Civil War (Confederate service)

     First Manassas
     Peninsula
     Valley
     Second Manassas
     Sharpsburg
     Fredericksburg
     Chancellorsville
     Gettysburg
     Wilderness
     Spotsylvania
     Cold Harbor
     Petersburg
     Appomattox
     Virginia 1861
     Virginia 1862
     Virginia 1863
     Virginia 1864
     Maryland 1864

World War I

     Meuse-Argonne
     Alsace 1918

World War II

     Normandy (with arrowhead)
     Northern France
     Rhineland
     Central Europe

     Headquarters Company (Lynchburg Home Guard), 2d Battalion, additionally entitled to:

Civil War (Confederate service)

     North Carolina 1863
     North Carolina 1864

World War I

     Champagne-Marne
     Aisne-Marne
     St. Mihiel
     Lorraine 1918
     Champagne 1918

   Company A (Monticello Guard, Charlottesville) and Support Company (Farmville Guard), 2d
                             Battalion, each additionally entitled to:

Civil War (Confederate service)

     North Carolina 1863

    Companies A and B (Alexandria Light Infantry, Manassas), 3d Battalion, each additionally
                                           entitled to:

Civil War (Confederate service)

     Tennessee 1863

                                     DECORATIONS

Presidential Unit Citation (Army), Streamer embroidered NORMANDY

French Croix de Guerre with Palm, World War II, Streamer embroidered BEACHES OF NORMANDY

     Headquarters Company (Roanoke) and Company A (Bedford), 1st Battalion, and Headquarters Company  (Lynchburg Home Guard), 2d Battalion, each additionally entitled to:

     Presidential Unit Citation (Army), Streamer embroidered VIRE

     French Croix de Guerre with Silver-Gilt Star, World War II, Streamer embroidered VIRE
 
 

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF THE ARMY:

     Donald J. Delandro
     Brigadier General, USA
     The Adjutant General

original document dated 29 April 1985
 

ADDITIONAL AWARDS FROM THE STATE OF VIRGINIA
original document dated 28 September 1956 from Virginia Governor Thomas B. Stanley
to Colonel Archibald A. Sproul of the 116th Infantry Regiment authorizing Six Battle
Streamers as follows:

     First Indian War in Augusta County, 1742-1744

     Second Indian War in Augusta County, 1753-1755

     Third Indian War, 1763-1764

     Dunmore's War, 1774

     Frontier Duty, 1742-1775--1776-1783 

NOTE: This was the thoroughly researched and official accepted lineage of the 116th Infantry Regiment until the activities of the naming commission established during the Biden administration to remove all references to Confederate States service from the current military establishment. It was found in the research that, just as with your family genealogy, certain individuals and their immediate family in the geographical area of Augusta County, Virginia served in the various units listed linking them.  This was not dependent on the 1929 or 1958 legislation regarding Confederate veterans.