1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment
"Black Scarves"

The 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, "Black Scarves," was first constituted on 12 April 1808 in the Regular Army as a company of the 6th Infantry. It was organized between May and July 1808 in Pennsylvania, New York, or New Jersey. The unit served in 4 campaigns in the War of 1812: Canada, Chippewa, Lundy's Lane, and Alabama 1814.

After the end of the War of 1812, the unit was consolidated between May and October 1815 with a company of the 16th Infantry (first constituted on 11 January 1812), a company each of the 22nd and 23rd Infantry (both constituted on 26 June 1812), and a company of the 32nd Infantry (constituted on 29 January 1813) to form a company of the 2nd Infantry. The unit was designated on 22 May 1816 as Company A, 2nd Infantry.

Company A, 2nd Infantry participated in 6 campaigns of the Mexican-American War: Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec. It then went on to participate in 23 campaigns of the American Civil War: Bull Run, Peninsula, Shiloh, Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Murfreesborough, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Wilderness, Atlanta, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Missouri 1861, Kentucky 1862, Mississippi 1862, Virginia 1862, Virginia 1863, Tennessee 1863, and Georgia 1864.

The Company was consolidated on 18 April 1869 with Company A, 16th Infantry. Company A, 16th Infantry had been first constituted on 3 May 1861 in the Regular Army as Company A, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry and organized 21 August 1861 at Camp Slemmer, Illinois. It was reorganized and redesignated on 21 September 1866 as Company A, 16th Infantry. The consolidated unit was designated as Company A, 2nd Infantry. The unit also participated in numerous campaigns of the Indian Wars between its activation and the turn of the 20th century: Miami, Seminoles, Nez Perces, Bannocks, Pine Ridge, California 1850, California 1851, and California 1852.

The unit participated in the Santiago Campaign of the Spanish-American War and recieved a streamer without inscription for participation in operations in the Philippines surrounding the insurrection there around the turn of the 20th century. The 2nd Infantry Regiment as a whole was assigned on 27 July 1918 to the 19th Division. It was relieved on 14 February 1919 from assignment to the 19th Division and assigned on 24 March 1923 to the 6th Division.

It was relieved on 16 October 1939 from assignment to the 6th Division and assigned to the 5th Division (later redesignated as the 5th Infantry Division.) As an element of the 5th Infantry Division, the unit participated in 5 campaigns of the Second World War: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace, and Central Europe. After the end of the Second World War, the unit was inactivated on 20 September 1946 at Camp Campbell, Kentucky.

The unit was reactivated on 15 July 1947 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina and was inactivated there on 30 April 1950. It was reactivated again on 1 March 1951 at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Pennsylvania and inactivated there on 1 September 1953. The unit was reactivated on 25 May 1954 in Germany and inactivated on 1 June 1957 at Fort Ord, California. It was concurrently relieved from assignment to the 5th Infantry Division and redesignated as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battle Group, 2nd Infantry.

The Battle Group was redesignated on 19 February 1962 as Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry, assigned to the 5th Infantry Division. It was concurrently reactivated at Fort Devens, Massachusetts with its organic elements concurrently constituted and activated. The unit was relieved on 12 July 1965 from assignment to the 5th Infantry Division and assigned to the 1st Infantry Division. Serving with the 1st Infantry Division, the Battalion participated in 11 campaigns in Vietnam: Defense, Counteroffensive, Counteroffensive Phase II, Counteroffensive Phase III, Tet Counteroffensive, Counteroffensive Phase IV, Counteroffensive Phase V, Counteroffensive Phase VI, Tet 69/Counteroffensive, Summer-Fall 1969, and Winter-Spring 1970.

The Battalion continued to serve with the 1st Infantry Division after returning from Vietnam. It was inactivated on 1 October 1983 at Fort Riley, Kansas, and relieved from assignment to the 1st Infantry Division.

While inactive, the unit was redesignated on 1 October 2005 as the 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment. It was reactivated on 16 March 2008 in Germany as part of the 172nd Infantry Brigade (Separate). 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry was concurrently inactivated and reflagged as 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry, as part of the reflagging of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division as the 172nd Infanty Brigade (Separate).