PENNSYLVANIA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD

  1 st Battalion 110 th Infantry (Mech)

   A brief history of the First Battalion, 110 th Infantry

Battalion Motto:  

“The Devotion of Each is the Strength of the Regiment”

   Few military organizations have earned a record as distinguished as that of the 110 th Infantry.   First organized primarily of existing units of Civil War veterans in NOV 1873, as the Tenth Regiment of Infantry, the organization consisted of companies in Greensburg, Monongahela, Mount Pleasant, Livermore, McLaughlinsville, Washington, Latrobe, and North Washington, Pennsylvania.   Later, companies existed in Saltsburg, Indiana, Hollidaysburg, New Brighton, Waynesburg, Blairsville, Latrobe, Beaver Falls, and Johnstown. The first commanding officer was Civil War combat veteran Colonel John A. Black of Greensburg.

   The 10 th was mustered into federal service for the War with Spain as the 10 th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in the spring of 1898, under the command of Colonel Alexander L. Hawkins of Washington County.   Training was conducted at Mt. Gretna, Pennsylvania, and at Chichamauga Park, Georgia.   The Regiment landed in Manila, Philippine Islands on 21 JUL 1898.   Ten days later soldiers from the 10 th became the first American troops to encounter enemy fire in the war. Fighting occurred around Manila and Malolos.   The Regiment fought with such distinction that it was given the nickname “ The Fighting Tenth”.   Spanish American War and Philippine Insurrection service is commemorated on the organizational crest by the blockhouse, palm tree, and two stars.   Colonel Hawkins died of illness aboard the US Steamship Senator while returning to the United States.   A monument to Colonel Hawkins stands in Schenley Park in Pittsburgh.

   The Tenth Regiment was again mobilized on 23 JUN 1916 and served five months on the Mexican Border.  

   As the United States prepared for World War I, the “Fighting Tenth” was mobilized as the Hundred and Tenth Infantry Regiment, and assigned to the Twenty Eighth Infantry Division.   Following training at Camp Hancock, Georgia, the 110 th sailed for Europe with the Division.   In Europe the 110 th was assigned to the British Northumberland Fusiliers for additional training.

   The Regiment fought in the campaigns at Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, Meuse-Argonne, Champagne, and Lorraine suffering 4,183 casualties including

760 dead.   These historic WW-I battles were commemorated on the organizational crest by the six fleurs-de-lis.

  In FEB 1941 the 110 th was again mobilized for training.   After over two years of

Brief History of the 110 th   stateside training and nine months in Great Britain, the Regiment landed in Normandy and struck on to the forests of St. Sever. Advancing as many as 18 miles per. day the Battalion proudly participated in the liberation of Paris, and advanced into Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany.   In DEC 1944 the Regiment was holding an extended portion of the 28 th Division's line when the Germans started their offensive that resulted in the “Battle of the Bulge”.    Battered by six German Divisions, the 28 th fought on.   Encircled by German forces, elements of the 110 th hacked their way out by cover of night and reassembled to fight again.   More than 2,700 men were lost in three days of fighting, but the 110 th exacted a fearful toll upon the Germans.

   After a month's rest, the Regiment was put into action to liberate Colmar.   When VJ Day was proclaimed the 110 th was training in the United States for the Allied Forces final battles against Japan.   By the war's end Campaign Streamers for action in Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland, and Central Europe had been added to the Regimental Colors.         

   The Regiment's fifth tour of active duty in a fifty-two year period began in SEP 1950, when called for the Korean War.   After a year of intensive training at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and the Southern Pines Maneuver Area the Battalion sailed for Germany.   They joined the NATO forces in Ulm and New Ulm to provide for the security of Western Europe and the world.

   In JUN 1953 the 110 th was being reorganized in Western Pennsylvania while the Colors were still on German soil.   In 1954, during the first annual training camp since reorganization after the Korean War, the Regimental Colors were returned to Pennsylvania.

  In APR 1968 the 110 th Infantry Regiment was reorganized as a Battalion in the 56 th Brigade, assigned to the 42 nd Division of the New York Army National Guard.   Headquartered in Scottdale, the Battalion consisted of units in Greensburg, Connellsville, Mt. Pleasant, Canonsburg, Monesson, and Mononghela.   In APR 1975 the 110 th returned to the 28 th Division under the 2 nd Brigade.

   The above history highlights mainly the active federal service of the Battalion.   It must be remembered that federal service accounts for less than nine years of the Battalion's total service.   Interspersed between these calls to active duty were many years of hard training and responses to emergencies such as snow storms, the Johnstown flood, Hurricane Agnes, tornadoes; and civil disturbances in the coal mining regions, industrial regions, and streets of Pittsburgh.   Other state duties included the trucker's strike of, many local construction projects, a fuel emergency in 1977, and the Cuban resettlement in 1980.   

Kosovo / Feb 03.