THE COAT OF ARMS             Heraldy
 

ARMS. Within a bordure of the United States, a hill vert crowned with battlements gules on a field argent. On a chief azure three crosses patee of the field. Encircling the escutcheon as infantry officers' full dress belt, (paragraph 2, Special Regulations 42, 1917) with plate in chief proper, inscribed with the motto "Noli me Tangere" in base, and in chief "Third Infantry, 1784" all sable. The escutcheon and belt to be displayed in front of an old pattern bayonet and drum major's baton from Mexican War crossed in saltire proper.

CREST. On a wreath argent and azure an infantry officer's cocked hat of 1784 with white plume proper.

Description
This regiment has a continuous history since 1784. The charge on the shield symbolizes the distinguished service rendered by the regiment during the Mexican War. At Cerro Gordo the 3^rd and the 7^th Infantry carried the heights of Telegrafo Hill, crowned with strong defenses, the key note of the enemy's position. At Churusbasco the 3^rd Infantry was in the column which assaulted the citadel and General Scott's report states "the white flags (of surrender) were not exhibited until the moment when the 3^rd Infantry under Captain Alexander had cleared the way by fire and bayonet and had entered the work." Captain Alexander then planted the colors of the regiment on the balcony.

The regiment also took part in the attack on the citadel of Chapultepec and was one of the first to enter the city of Mexico. It will be noted that the hill, battlements and field are in the Mexican colors.

The Chief commemorates the Civil War where the regiment served in Sykes' Division, the badge of which was a white maltese cross; three of these are used in allusion to the regiment's numerical designation.

The baton used as one of the supporters was made from the flagstaff of the Capitol Building in the City of Mexico at the time of its capture and is still in the possession of the regiment. The remainder of the arms are self explanatory.
 

COLORS AND DISTINCTIVE INSIGNE

The Colors
The Third Infantry's colors are those given to the Infantry of the Third Sub-Legion in 1792 when the army was serving under General (Mad Anthony) Wayne against the Indians in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

In a General Order issued September 11, 1792, from his headquarters at Pittsburg, General Wayne prescribed distinctive colors for each unit of the army. The colors assigned the Infantry of the Third Sub-Legion was "yellow bindings to their caps, yellow plumes and black hair (wigs)." The yellow used by the soldiers of the regiment at that time was a dark shade or "buff." Thus, the accepted colors of the Third Infantry are "Buff and Black."

The Knapsack Strap
It is further related that the soldiers of the Third Sub-Legion, being proud of their distinctive colors, took every occasion to display them and so to mark out their members from members of other units of the army. One of the methods was to weave strips of raw-hide (natural buff color) into the broad black shoulder straps of the knapsack which formed part of the equipment at that time.

The present distinctive insigne of the Third Infantry, the "knapsack strap" worn at the point of the left shoulder of the uniform blouse, is a direct descendent of that old custom of the members of the Infantry of the Third Sub-Legion. This insigne is a strip of black leather one-half inch in width with a strip of buff leather one-fourth inch in width woven into it in such a manner that two lengths of the buff leather, each one and thee-fourths inches long, shall appear in front of the shoulder and three such lengths in the rear of the shoulder when the knapsack is fastened to the blouse so that its outer edge coincides with the seam by which the left sleeve is joined to the blouse. The strap passes under the arm fitting snugly and is fastened under the shoulder loop.
 

HISTORY
The History of the Third Infantry runs like a silver thread through all the colorful fabric of the history of the nation itself. Older than the Constitution, the Regiment has borne on its rolls the names of men who fought with Washington at Valley Forge and Yorktown. It has served on every frontier and in every war that the nation has waged. It has furnished the country with one president and many statesmen and military leaders. Always ready to fight, for nearly a century and a half the Third Infantry has done its full share in preserving the peace of the nation and in furthering the cause of civilization at home and abroad. As "The Old Guard" it is know and honored throughout the Army.

The Third Infantry traces its descent from the Pennsylvania Regiment of Infantry organized under authority of Congress in 1784, as a measure of protection for the young nation following the demobilization of the Revolutionary Army. It was composed chiefly of officers and men who had seen service in the Revolution and for many years afterward its rank and file had among them many Revolutionary soldiers. In 1789 Congress made its first provision for a national army and the Pennsylvania Regiment became the First Regiment. Through various changes of designation such as "the Infantry of the Legion" regimental history is traced to 1815 when the present Third Infantry was organized by the consolidation of the First, Fifth, Seventeenth, Nineteenth and Twenty-eighth Regiments. Each of these organizations had taken a prominent part in the War of 1812.

For the next eleven years the regiment was stationed along the Great Lakes garrisoning at different times the posts of Detroit, Mackinac, Fort Howard, Wis., Dearborn, Ill.; Knox, Harrison and Wayne, Ind., and Fort Crawford, Wis. Late in 1826, the Regiment was concentrated at "Camp Miller, Missouri" where it erected the post which has since become known as Jefferson Barracks. The following year the Regiment moved up the Missouri and constructed a new post which still exists as Fort Leavenworth, named in honor of the Third's Commanding Officer.

The next thirteen years brought frontier duty in what are now the states of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. In 1840, the Third Infantry joined the army in Florida where it saw arduous service in the Creek and Seminole Wars. In 1843 it returned to Jefferson Barracks. Two years later it was again on active duty in Texas as a part of the Army of Observation, under command of its former major, now General Zackary Taylor. Then followed the war with Mexico, in which the part taken by the Third was not exceeded by any other regiment. With Taylor in Northern Mexico and with Scott at the capture of Mexico City, the Third won honor and glory at the cost of exceedingly high casualties among both officers and men.

On the triumphant entry of the American Army into Mexico City, the Third Infantry, because of its gallant conduct throughout the campaign, had the honor of heading the column. As the Regiment passed in review before the army commander at the gate of the city, General Scott turned to his staff and said: "Take off your hats, Gentlemen, to the Old Guard of the Army." The name Old Guard has clung to the Third since that day. The Regiment also possesses a baton carved from the flagstaff which surmounted the Citadel of Mexico City and trimmed in native silver which was presented to it by its brigade commander, General Persifer Smith, in recognition of its heroic service under his command.

From Mexico the Third went back to frontier warfare, first in Texas and then in New Mexico. For ten years there was more arduous work against the Apache and Navajo Indians. Back in Texas in 1860, the Regiment prepared for the return to the North when the clouds of Civil War lowered in 1861. From Texas to New York, the Regiment traveled by transport and arrived in time to participate with the Army of the Potomac in the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. The Regiment, according to General McDowell, "by its gallant conduct, unflinching steadiness and perfect order in covering the flight of the panic stricken Army, in every battle of the Army of the Potomac and although reduced in strength to about two hundred men and officers, was present at the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox. During the war it lost in killed 139 and in wounded 135.

Scarcely had the Civil War ended when the Third was again on the frontier, in Kansas, where the Indian tribes had taken advantage of the war to commit depredations. From 1874 to 1877, it was on duty in Missouri and in Pennsylvania in connection with riots against the civil government. And then came ten more years of Indian warfare, this time on the Montana frontier. Many members of the Veterans' Association have vivid memories of those strenuous days of frontier activity.

By 1888 it appeared that the civil authority was strong enough all through the West to handle the situation and the Third Infantry was ordered to Fort Snelling for home station. Thus began the association with Fort Snelling and the Twin Cities which has continued to the present time. Ten years of comparative quiet were ended in 1898 by the outbreak of the War with Spain, and as the Third, despite its years of rest, was always ready to fight, it was ore of the first regiments ordered to Cuba. In the Cuban campaign it took an active part, participating in every important engagement. It returned to Fort Snelling in September of 1898.

The Third Infantry took part in its last Indian warfare in October, 1898, when the last Indian battle in the United States was fought at Leech Lake, Minnesota, where Major Melville Carey Wilkinson and five enlisted men were killed.

In January, 1899, the Third Infantry again left Fort Snelling enroute to the Philippine Islands by way of New York. For three years it saw strenuous service in the pacification of the Islands and added new laurels and new battle streamers to its colors. After two years of duty at Fort Thomas and other stations in the mid-west the Regiment was once again enroute upon the high seas in June 1904, this time to station in Alaska. Two years of service and arduous labor followed as the Third played its part in opening up the northern territory by building roads and telegraph lines.

When the Regiment returned to the States in 1906 it was stationed at Fort George Wright and other stations in the vicinity until 1909 when it was again sent to the Philippines. Although on the second three year tour in the Far East, the Third saw less of fighting than on its previous tour, there was nevertheless no lack of hard and necessary duty. Detachments of the Regiment explored many sections of the Islands not before visited by white men, making roads, marking trails and doing other peaceful work which have had their influence in bringing civilization to the Islands.

Orders to return to the States were received in 1912 and the Third settled down for four years of duty at Madison Barracks and Fort Ontario, N.Y. In 1916 the Third was ordered to the Mexican Border. Here, although it gained little glory, it performed necessary duties during the Border troubles and during the World War. In 1920, it left Texas for Camp Sherman, Ohio, and in July of the following year left Camp Sherman enroute for its old home station at Fort Snelling by way of Camp Perry, Ohio, where a halt was made for duty in connection with national rifle matches. The march from Camp Sherman to Fort Snelling was more than 1,100 miles in length, one of the longest ever made by any regiment. Fort Snelling was reached in November, 1921, in the midst of an early season snowstorm. The cold was forgotten, however, in the warm welcome extended by old friends.

Upon arrival at Fort Snelling the Forty-Ninth Infantry, then at this station, was consolidated with the Third, bringing to the Regiment many of its present enlisted men and efficient non-commissioned officers. Of late years now the Third has remained at Fort Snelling and in the midst of friends of long standing. It is engaged in carrying out the work of the new army, especially in training each summer large contingents of civilian personnel, but it is also maintaining its old standard of "always ready to fight."