9th Cavalry Battle Honors
History of Campaign Streamers
(Taken from an Association of the United States Army/Institute of Land Warfare brochure by John B. Wilson)
On 6 January 1992, Secretary of the Army Michael P. W. Stone approved a new Army campaign streamer. It recognized the Army's actions in the Dominican Republic between April 1965 and September 1966. This brought the number of streamers on the Army's flag to 172. The story of how the Army arrived at this system of displaying its battle honors is both fascinating and complex. It also provides some interesting insights into the maturing problems of a young army.
At the start of the Civil War, all U.S. Army infantry and artillery regiments carried two "colors" - the national color (the Stars and Stripes) with the name of the regiment embroidered on the red center stripe, and the organizational color. Organizational colors differed by type of regiment. Infantry regiments carried a dark blue color with the U.S. seal in the center, while artillery regiments had a yellow color with crossed canons in the center. The unit designation appeared on a scroll under the seal. Cavalry regiments did not have a national color, instead using a smaller version of the infantry's blue organizational color. In addition, each cavalry troop had a swallow-tailed guidon; red on the top half with the white letters "US"; white on the botton half with the letters of the troop in red. Other types of units, such as engineers, did not have their own colors. Battle honors were not displayed on any of the colors, and in fact there had been no official attempt to define battles or campaigns.
The situation changed on 25 August 1861 when MG John C. Fremont, commanding the Western Department, ordered the word SPRINGFIELD placed on the colors of the Union regiments that had fought at Wilson's Creek two days before. In a joint resolution on Christmas Eve, 1861, Congress confirmed Fremont's order. To publicize further the honor, President Lincoln directed the resolution to be read to every regiment in the Union Army.
Two months later the War Department instructed all regiments and batteries to inscribe on their national colors or guidons the names of the battles in which they had performed meritoriously. The hope was that the units would regard their colors as representing their honor and would fight to the death to guard them. This proved to be the case as many bloody fights raged over the possession of a unit's colors. The Department awarded numerous Medals of Honor to men whose heroism protected the colors. It was left to the commanders at the regimental level or higher to determine the names that could be inscribed, and to finance the cost. Confederate Army units soon followed suit by inscribing their own colors with battle honors.
In addition to placing the names of battles on the colors, Army regulations of 1863 directed the recording of battle credits in the Army Register. This was not done, however, until after the war, in 1866. As there was still no official system for designating battles, lists submitted by regimental were used. The result was confusion. Claims were made for battles going back to 1791, with some regiments asking credit for over sixty so-called "battles." Recognizing the need to compile an official list of battles and participating units, the War Department asked for regimental submissions again in 1867. The result was unsatisfactory and the 1866 list continued to be used.
In 1877, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, commanding general of the Army, questioned the accuracy of the Register's list and it was removed. However, orders were not given to remove the names from the unit colors. To resolve the situation, a board was convened under MG Winfield Scott Hancock. The board studied the problem and issued its findings in 1878. These defined a "battle" and suggested a system to determine when a regiment could claim battle credit, especially when only part of the regiment had fought in a battle. Other thorny issues addressed included how to handle battle honors for consolidated units, and for detached cavalry troops and artillery batteries. Many senior officers were not pleased with the board's findings, but Army regulations of 1881 incorporated them, reaffirming the placement of battle honors on a unit's national colors.
By 1890, some regiments claimed so many battle honors that it was impossible to put them all on their national color. In addition, the paint weathered badly, giving the national color a tawdry appearance. To solve this problem, the War Department directed the names of the battles be removed from the national color and instead be engraved on silver rings or bands to be placed on the staffs of the organizational colors. The rings would be paid for by the War Department. The Office of the Adjutant General (OAG) was given the responsibility of determining what the inscriptions would say and which units were to receive them. The whole issue of honors was very emotional and disputes raged among senior officers and veterans. Without a list, OAG would not approve silver rings, despite continued requests by units.
In 1904, the Army redesigned its organizational colors and all lettering, including unit designation, was removed from the national color. Instead, the unit designation was to be engraved on silver bands and placed on the staff of the national color. The Regulations ignored battle honors and units continued to request the bands without success. In 1912, the fustrated 7th Infantry commander asked permission to use unit funds to purchase the rings. This attracted the attention of Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison. He reviewed the matter and in 1913 Army regulations once again authorized the issuing of battle honor rings to be displayed on organizational colors, which were called the "regimental" colors. The old problems quickly arose. For example, the 4th Infantry sent in a request for 115 silver bands for battles from 1791 to 1901. A few units were actually issued some bands, but without a list of validated battles OAG soon stopped the practice. Unit requests were filed without action and no more silver bands were provided.
Interestingly, 1915 Army regulations authorized OAG to furnish each company, troop, and battery an embossed certificate with the unit's battle honors. However, when the units requested such certificates, OAG asked them to provide the list of validated battles. Of course, units could not provide this list. There is no record of any certificate actually being issued. Not until after the Second World War did the Army begin its current practice of issuing unit lineage and honors certification listing all unit honors.
The arrival of the First World War diverted Army attention to other matters. At the end of the war, several commanders in the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) requested (per 1913 regulations) silver bands for the war service to place on their regimental colors. In response, Gen. John J. Pershing requested approval to establish a catalog of World War I battles, and participating units. In 1919, the catalog was published in AEF General Orders. It recognized twelve battles. The orders authorized engraved silver bands for the regiments in the battles, and also for separate or distinct actions in a specific battle. AEF Headquarters also prepared lists of battle credits for divisions and separate units, although no silver bands were authorized. This was the first time units above regiment size were so rcognized.
The rapid return of the AEF from Europe did not allow preparation time for the silver bands. As a temporary measure, Gen. Pershing directed each unit entitled to a battle band receive a ribbon with the name of the battle or battles printed on it. These ribbons were later to be replaced by the silver bands, but the change never happened. In August 1919, a shortage of silver caused the War Department to return to the old system. It directed that campaigns, not battles, be embroidered on the organizational color. The first official list of U.S. Army campaigns was also published, naming 76 campaigns from the Revolution to World War I. The system was not uniform, however. Only the words "Indian Wars" with dates and the single word "Revolution" with no date were used for credits in those wars. For the China Relief Expedition and the Mexican War, only battle names, no dates, were used.
As before, the old system was soon found to be unsatisfactory, and in June 1920 the Army changed back to the use of cloth streamers. The colors of each streamer were the colors used for the appropriate campaign medal ribbon. For the wars that did not have campaign medals, the Secretary of War prescribed the streamer colors. As many names of the campaigns and battles as possible were placed on each streamer. More than one streamer was authorized if required by the number of names. With some modification, this became the basic system in use today.
The problem of determining a list of approved battles and campaigns remained. The Historical Section of the Army War College was given the task to resolve this contentious issue. By April 1921, a revised and expanded list of battles and campaigns was published. There were 94 identified: 13 for the First World War; 10 for the Philippine Insurrection; three for the Spanish-American War; 13 for the Indian Wars; 25 for the Civil War; 10 for the Mexican War; six for the War of 1812; and 11 for the War of Independence. In many cases, battles and engagements previously claimed as separate events by units were grouped together into a single campaign and given a broad descriptive name and date. However, there were exceptions to this rule. The China Relief Expedition, for example, in which individual battles continued to be recognized. The campaigns of the Indian Wars were listed using only the names of the tribes without dates. Six months after publication of the official Army list, two more campaigns were added: one for the Indian Wars and another for the Philippine Insurrection.
In 1928, the War Department granted brigades and higher headquarters the right to display campaign credit. The privilege was later extended to all Table of Organization units authorized a flag, color, or guidon. Organic elements of a regiment or a battalion could not display campaign credit unless it was earned independently while it was detached from the parent unit.
World War II added 38 campaigns to the Army's heritage. They included 16 for the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater, 21 for the Asiatic-Pacific Theater, and one for the American Theater. Participation in the Korean War earned the Army 10 campaign credits. In 1955, the Army approved a new streamer for the 1916-1917 Mexican Punitive Expedition.
While the official Army flag was adopted in 1955, the question of how to display campaign credits on that flag came up. Three options were considered. One option was to use the unit system of placing multiple campaigns on a single streamer for each war. In producing the prototype sample streamers, however, a manufacturing error was made and a separate streamer was made for each campaign. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor liked the idea of the separate streamer for each campaign or battle on the Army flag, and the same system was adopted for units as well. The Army was granted 145 streamers. To distinguish its streamers from the unit streamers, the ones for the Army flag were made 12 inches longer and each streamer carried the date of the campaign or battle. Within 20 years, these initial 145 streamers were joined by another 17 resulting from the campaigns of the Vietnam War.
The American Bicentennial caused the Army to take a second look at the Revolutionary War campaigns. Modifications had been recommended before, but no action had been taken. As a result of the re-evaluation, 5 new campaigns were identified, increasing the number of Army streamers to 167. More recently, campaign streamers were added for Grenada, Panama, and the Persian Gulf War. The addition of the Dominican Republic streamer in 1992 brought the total to the current 172. Most recently two more campaigns have been designated for the Persian Gulf War, and there may be more added for the Bosnian deployments.
In addition to campaign streamers, unit colors and guidons carry both U.S. and foreign awards for unit heroism or meritorious service. Guidons may also carry unit qualification awards.
Whatever the war or campaign, the streamers serve as a source of pride and inspiration for the men and women of America's Army. They reflect not only the proud history of the army, but also the courage and sacrifice of America's soldiers.