| Unit Name: | 138th Infantry Regiment |
| Country: | United States |
| Type: | Light Infantry |
| Branch: | Missouri Army National Guard |
| Dates: | 1832 to 1974 -- 2010 to Present |
| Size: | Regiment |
| Current Commander: | LTC Timothy (TJ) Halls |
| Commander1 Label: | 1st BN-138th IN REGT |
| Ceremonial Chief: | LTC Tyson K Erdman |
| Commander2 Label: | 3rd BN-138th IN REGT |
| Nickname: | First Missouri |
| Motto: | St. Louis' Own |
| Battles: | Mexican War American Civil War World War I World War II Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Spartan Shield Operation Inherent Resolve |
| Decorations: | Meritorious Unit CommendationGovernor's Unit Citation |
| Identification Symbol Label: | Distinctive unit insignia |
The 138th Infantry Regiment is an light infantry regiment of the United States Army and the Missouri National Guard.
There are currently two Battalions within the 138th Infantry Regiment:
The 1st Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment is a light infantry battalion assigned to the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, subordinate to the 35th Infantry Division. Headquartered in the Jefferson Barracks.
The 3rd Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment is a light infantry battalion assigned to the 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (United States), subordinate to the 36th Infantry Division. As of 2024, the unit currently wears the 110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade Patch until the official Alignment is completed. Headquartered in Kansas City, MO.
The 138th Infantry Regiment traces its lineage from the St. Louis Greys, a volunteer militia company organized in 1832 and the first militia regiment of Missouri. The company's first combat action was during the Mexican War while serving with the St. Louis Legion, a battalion-sized element composed of independent St. Louis-area companies. The unit mustered into federal service on 18 May 1846 along with the Native American Rangers, Boone Guards, Montgomery Guards, Missouri Fusiliers and Riflemen, Morgan Riflemen, and the Texas Free Corps. By 1853 the Greys expanded to five companies to form the 1st Battalion, 1st Missouri Regiment but underwent a series of reductions until 1857 when only one company of Greys remained.
During the Missouri-Kansas border crises in 1860, the First Missouri Infantry Regiment (of which the Greys were a part along with several other St. Louis-area militia companies), patrolled the border to prevent Free-Stater settlers from entering the state, an action called the Southwest Expedition.
Missouri was deeply divided, with citizens having both Union and Confederate sympathies. Some of the Greys loyal to the Confederacy ignored President Abraham Lincoln's proclamation for the states to call up their militia and provide troops to the Union to suppress the rebellion of many Southern states after the bombardment of Fort Sumter. The Greys were mustered into service at the call of Missouri governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, who was secretly loyal to the Confederacy, outside of St. Louis at Camp Jackson where St. Louis University now sits. Accused of plotting to capture the federal St. Louis Arsenal (now the location of the Budweiser Brewery) as part of the Camp Jackson Affair, the 1st Missouri Volunteer Militia, with its two companies of St. Louis Greys, was captured by Union troops and marched to the arsenal on 10 May 1861. A riot ensued, and the next day, the Missouri State Legislature replaced the Missouri Volunteer Militia with the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard and outlawed all other militia organizations. A truce between Missouri State Guard commander Sterling Price and the Union commander of the Department of the Missouri, William S. Harney, signed on 21 May 1861 in an attempt to forestall violence between federal forces, Missouri State Guardsmen, Unionists, and pro-Confederates, fell apart. Price balked at the terms of the treaty, namely to prevent violence against Unionists, Harney's loyalties and family connections were questioned by many Unionists, and Governor Jackson continued to negotiate with Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Harney was replaced by Nathaniel Lyon, and Lyon ordered Jackson and Price to leave Missouri's capital of Jefferson City. The two fled, along with many pro-Confederates in the Missouri Convention, which at the time was questioning Missouri's side in the war.
Governor Jackson was voted out of office and replaced, a motion carried by the Unionist majority that now existed in the Missouri Convention. Upon being paroled, the Greys and the remainder of the old First Missouri broke parole and were reformed as part of the Missouri State Guard, which had fled to southern Missouri with Governor-in-exile Jackson. They then went to Memphis, Tennessee and created a Confederate regiment known as the 1st Missouri Infantry Regiment, 1st Missouri Brigade, otherwise known as the “Camp Jackson Boys," commanded by Colonel John S. Bowen. With casualties came amalgamation, and after fighting in the Shiloh, Mississippi River, Vicksburg, Atlanta, Nashville, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama campaigns, the 1st Missouri surrendered at Fort Blakely, Alabama on 9 April 1865. The 1st Missouri Infantry Regiment marched on foot more than 4,000 miles and traveled more than 1,500 miles by railroad and steamboat during their 40-month journey across seven states on both sides of the Mississippi. It was also a part of the best drilled and finest combat unit of the Confederate States Army and one of the most elite units in the entire Civil War, the 1st Missouri Brigade "the South's Finest".[1]
Below is a quote from the company commander of Company "D": St. Louis Greys that served during the Civil War regarding the First Missouri Infantry:
After the Civil War, the Greys reformed and by 1873 joined other uniformed companies to create the 1st Regiment of Organized Missouri Militia. In 1898 nearly every member of the First Regiment, Missouri National Guard, as it was known at that time, volunteered to fight in the war with Spain under the name of the First Regiment of Infantry, Missouri Volunteers. They mustered into service at Jefferson Barracks and mobilized to Chickamauga Park, Georgia on 21 May 1898 but were never sent to Cuba or Puerto Rico due to lack of funding from the state.
The Militia Act of 1903 required the National Guard of Missouri to conform to federal regulations and with the initiation of the National Defense Act of 1916, the First Missouri took an oath to the President of the United States as well as to the Governor of Missouri.
After taking part in the Punitive Expedition in 1916 with service near Laredo, Texas, the 1st Missouri returned home. However, it was a short stay. Ordered to Camp Doniphan, now part of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the regiment began training for the Great War. On 1 October 1917, the First and Fifth Regiments, both from St. Louis, were consolidated into the 138th Infantry Regiment, 69th Brigade, 35th Division.
During World War I, the 138th Infantry Regiment first took over operations in the Vosges Mountains in southern France and drew first blood for the 35th Division during a trench raid at Hilsenfirst. The regiment later took part in the Battle of St. Mihiel. In the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne, the regiment led the division on the first day of the attack on 26 September 1918. During this engagement, Private Nels Wald and Captain Alexander Skinker earned the Medal of Honor. Fighting through fog, enfilade fire from their left flank, and under constant artillery barrages, the regiment toiled through an exposed sector, German machine gun nests, and sniper fire to reach objective on Vauquois Hill. The regiment fought alongside Colonel George S. Patton's tank brigade to capture the villages of Cheppy and Exermont. After the Meuse-Argonne, the 138th assumed occupation duty south of Verdun.
After the war's end, the regiment sailed home on the USS Aeolus and arrived at the port of Newport News, Virginia, on 28 April 1919. The 138th Infantry was demobilized on 12 May 1919 at Camp Grant, Illinois. Per the terms of the National Defense Act of 1920, the regiment was reconstituted in the National Guard in 1921, assigned to the 35th Division, and allotted to the state of Missouri. The 1st Infantry, Missouri National Guard, was organized in 1921 with the headquarters, auxiliary troops, and 1st and 2nd Battalions in St. Louis and the 3rd Battalion in eastern Missouri. On 1 October 1921, the 1st Infantry was redesignated the 138th Infantry.
On 8 July 1922, the U.S. Army approved the 138th's regimental coat of arms along with the regimental colors. The regiment's coat of arms is an infantry blue shield with the statue Apotheosis of St. Louis in profile in gold; the statue, located outside the Saint Louis Art Museum, was a major symbol of the city before the opening of the Gateway Arch in 1965. The regiment's motto, "St. Louis’ Own," alludes to the historical home of the regiment and serves as a recognition of its history – nearly all the original members of the regiment were St. Louisans, as are all of its Medal of Honor recipients. The regiment's special designation as the "First Missouri" also stands as testament to its former name – Missouri's first, and now only, infantry regiment.
The 138th Infantry or elements thereof was called up to perform the following state duties: 1st Battalion for riot control during a railroad workers’ strike at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, in July 1922; tornado relief duties in St. Louis, 29 September–6 October 1927. In 1938, the St. Louis units of the regiment moved into a new armory built by the Works Progress Administration. The building was declared historically significant in 2017. The 138th Infantry conducted annual summer training most years at Camp Clark, near Nevada, Missouri, 1921–39. For at least three years, 1938–40, the regiment also trained some 89 company-grade infantry officers of the 102nd Division at Camp Clark and Camp Ripley, Minnesota. The 138th Infantry was inducted into active federal service on 23 December 1940, and moved to Camp Joseph T. Robinson, Little Rock, Arkansas, where it arrived on 5 January 1941. In August-September 1941, the regiment participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers.[2]
During World War II, the 138th Infantry was sent to Alaska in increments from January to June 1942, being officially relieved from the 35th Infantry Division on 1 March 1942.[3] The regiment served on mainland Alaska and in the Aleutian Islands, assisting in construction projects, defending bases and manning outposts. The regiment returned to the United States and was inactivated at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, on 20 July 1944.[4]
After 1945, the regiment returned once again to St. Louis, but by 1963, only the 1st Battalion remained in service. 1 May 1974 was the first day that an infantry unit could not call St. Louis and the state of Missouri home, as it had for 142 years. On that day, the lineage and honors of the regiment passed to the 1138th Engineer Battalion and were held by units in St. Louis, including Company B, 1st Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment, until reclaimed by the entire battalion in 2014 when the U.S. Army and National Guard Bureau recognized the 138th once again in the U.S. Army Regimental System.
The reactivation of 1st Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment (1-138th) began on 1 September 2010, with early implementation of the modified table of organization and equipment occurring on 1 September 2009. The 1-138th Infantry is the first infantry unit allocated to the Missouri National Guard since the casing of the 138th regimental colors in 1974. The 1-138th Infantry began building, forming, and equipping actions on 1 September 2008 with Federal Recognition granted in January 2012. In a Ceremony on 17 June 2015 at Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas, the Soldiers of the 1-138th Infantry witnessed the uncasing of its regimental colors since their last casing over 30 years earlier – a poetic gesture, as the regiment's forebears fought valiantly as brothers in arms with Arkansas over 150 years before.
The 1st Battalion, 138th Infantry, deployed to conduct state emergency duty during the winter storms of 2010 and most recently, to protect persons, property, and civil liberties in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. The battalion deployed to Qatar in 2017 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (Spartan Shield) to provide force protection of U.S. military assets and was there during the turbulent beginning of the GCC-Qatar Crisis. The battalion conducted security operations and was tasked with Quick Reaction Force responsibilities at various outposts in the region.
An element of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment deployed in May of 2023 in support of Operation Spartan Shield & Operation Inherent Resolve where for the first time in over a decade, 39 Missouri National Guard Infantryman received their Combat Infantryman Badge's for Combat Operations during Operation Inherent Resolve in Syria at a ceremony in December of 2023, the unit at that time was attached to the 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team.
The 3rd Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment (3-138th) was officially reactivated as of 1 September 2022 and is currently headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.[5] along with the 110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade.
1st Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment
3rd Battalion, 138th Infantry Regiment
1st Battalion Commanders
1st Battalion Command Sergeants Major
3rd Battalion Commanders
3rd Battalion Command Sergeants Major
Organized in 1832 in the Missouri Militia at St. Louis as the St. Louis Greys
Organized 26 July 1852 in the Missouri Militia at St. Louis as the National Guards
Organized 7 November 1877 in the Missouri National Guard at St. Louis as the 1st Regiment of Police Reserves
Constituted 14 December 1942 in the Army of the United States as the 880th Airborne Engineer Battalion, Aviation
(Federal recognition withdrawn 1 April 1954 from Company C [Colorado Air National Guard]; Company B [Louisiana Air National Guard] redesignated 1 September 1954 as Company B, 225th Engineer Aviation Battalion – hereafter separate lineage)
A Gold color metal and enamel device 1 3/32 inches (2.78 cm) in height consisting of a shield blazoned: Azure, the equestrian statue in profile of Louis IX (St. Louis) of France Or, (the statue is in Forest Park, St. Louis, by Charles Henry Niehaus).
The shield is blue for Infantry. The statue of Louis IX (St. Louis) alludes to the home area of the organization.
The distinctive unit insignia was originally approved for the 138th Infantry Regiment on 24 May 1926. It was redesignated for the 1138th Engineer Battalion on 3 May 1989.
The coat of arms was originally approved for the 138th Infantry Regiment on 8 July 1922. It was amended to correct the blazon on 11 October 1923. It was redesignated for 1138th Engineer Battalion on 3 May 1989.
Mexican War
Civil War (Confederate Service)
World War I
World War II
War on Terrorism