SEVENTH INFANTRY

From New Orleans to the Meuse-Argonne
By Herbert E. Smith

When Lord Packingham, brother-in-law of the Duke of Wellington, Surveyed the situation at New Orleans early in 1813, he was unaware of two important things.

First, like General Andrew Jackson who was opposing him, he did not know that the War of 1812 had been brought to a close.

Second, he failed to credit the pitifully small force of Americans lined up behind their breastworks of cotton bales for the hard-bitten fighting men they were.

This second error was particularly to cost the British dear.

Packingham took account of stock. He commanded a crack body of trained British soldiery, veterans of the rigorous Peninsular Campaign. Opposing him, as he saw it, was nothing but a motley array of half-breeds, undisciplined militiamen, Indian outlaws and just one regiment of Regulars. To his way of thinking the odds were all in his favor. He charged the cotton bales, and made history - for General Jackson and the Seventh U.S. Infantry.

The whole battle line was but a quarter of a mile long. Early in the conflict a hot shell from the British works fired the cotton bales and the Americans were forced to throw up hasty earth intrenchments. Behind this feeble shelter the Americans calmly awaited the British rush. Untrained volunteers were on the flanks, the Seventh held the center.

With a shout the trained English troops swept up to the attack, only to be turned back by the devastating fire of the crack shots of the Seventh infantrymen.

Three times the British charged that thin line of heroic regulars and forced to retreat and reform before the deadly fire of Jackson's men of the Seventh.

Finally Packingham and his trained troops fell back utterly routed. Short as the battle had been, it was the decisive land victory for American arms in the War of 1812. It was destined to carry Jackson to the presidency. And it established for all time the fighting ability of the Seventh infantry.

The regiment, organized July 16, 1798, did not receive its baptism of fire at the battle of New Orleans. Tippecanoe in November, 1811, had proven the mettle of this fine old regiment of the U.S. Army in its first engagement. But it was at New Orleans that the Seventh won the battle laurels and glorious traditions which it has retained to this day through a score of campaigns.

From 1815 to 1846 the regiment participated in several battles against the Seminole Indians in Florida. Then, in 1846, the Seventh was rushed to the Mexican border as the war clouds began to gather there. It established Fort Brown, Texas, in March of that year and gallantly and successfully defended that post against a terrific bombardment by Mexican batteries across the Rio Grande in Matamoras.

In September, 1846, the Seventh was in the vanguard of the victorious American troops which entered Monterey, Mexico, and swept the enemy out. Moving further inland the regiment helped take Contreras, Charubusco, Cerro Gordo and in September of 1847 attacked the works of Chapultepec. On the 14th of that month, with colors proudly flying and bands blaring "Yankee Doodle," it marched triumphantly into the City of Mexico where it remained until the early spring of 1848.

In 1861, the war having commenced between the North and the South, the Seventh infantry was ordered to concentrate at Fort Fillmore, New Mexico.

During the war between the states, the regiment distinguished itself by gallant action in several important engagements including Mesilla, Corinth, Fredericksburg, Murfreesborough, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, siege of Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, Kenesaw Mountain and in operations around Atlanta, Georgia.

At the close of the Civil War the Seventh proceeded to Fort Shaw, Montana, and soon found itself again actively engaged, this time against hostile Indians. From 1865 to 1891 the regiment participated in various campaigns against warring tribes, always acquitting itself with valor. The spirit of New Orleans was carrying on.

Except for the protection given by the Seventh infantry, and other Regular Army troops, the settlement of the great American northwest could not have been accomplished without the delay of several decades. Under the sheltering rifles of the Seventh and these other fine organizations of the U.S. Army, railroads were pushed through, wagon trains plodded safely across the plains instead of smoldering in embers along the trails and civilization marched westward with the course of American empire.

In April, 1898, the declaration of war against Spain found the Seventh infantry packing to leave the western plains for an embarkation point in Florida. On June 14th the regiment sailed for Cuba. Here it took part in the heavy action around Santiago; it bore the brunt of battle at El Caney, and war hard upon the heels of Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" charging up San Juan Hill.

The war with Spain over, the regiment was scattered to various stations and moved about continually. Some companies were stationed in the middle west, some in Alaska and some in the Philippines. the Seventh was not again united until August, 1902, when it was assembled at San Francisco prior to embarking for service in the Philippines. Here it performed two tours of tropical service and saw hard field service during the Philippine Insurrection.

With the prospects ripe for another Mexican campaign the regiment moved from Forts Brady and Wayne in Michigan to the southern border in 1913. In April of that year it embarked from Galveston for Vera Cruz, taking an active part in the patrol of that city and its outposts until November, 1914, when the situation eased and American troops returned to the United States.

In June, 1917, soon after the opening of American participation in the World War, the Seventh infantry was ordered to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where it proceeded to recruit itself to war strength for preparation to take part in the battle for democracy "over there".

It is a far cry from New Orleans to the verdant banks of the Aisne in France. But the spirit that drove Packingham's trained troops back from the blazing cotton bale embankment still carried on in the face of another and more powerful enemy.

In the Aisne defensive, the Chateau-Thierry sector, the Champagne-Meuse action, the Aisne-Marne offensive and the Meuse-Argonne operations the Seventh infantry gloriously upheld the best traditions of the Regular Army, one of those traditions being the gallant one it had itself made at New Orleans.

After the signing of the Armistice, the Seventh infantry, as a part of the Third Division, A.E.F. moved up into the Rhine and with the Army of Occupation and remained at various billets along the Rhine until it returned to the United States in August, 1919, taking temporary station at Camp Pike, Arkansas, after the war time emergency men had been demobilized at Camp Merritt, New Jersey.

The reorganization of the Army in the late summer of 1921 sent the regiment to Camp Lewis, Washington, where it remained about a year, changing station in September, 1922, to Vancouver Barracks, Washington.

An interesting feature of the present situation of the veteran regiment is the fact that it supplies practically all of the infantry replacements for Chilkoot Barracks, Alaska. At this time Headquarters, Second Battalion, Seventh infantry, and Companies E and F of the regiment, are quartered in the rugged but highly desirable post almost within the shadow of the Arctic Circle. While these troops in the Far North may be called upon to undergo more hardships than their comrades at home, there are many features to compensate them, such as hunting big game and exploring a new land.      - U.S. Army Recruiting News.