Regiment of Riflemen

Regiment of Riflemen
Riflemen officer in gray (foreground) and troops in green smocks (background)
Active1808–1821
DisbandedMarch 2, 1821
Country United States
Branch United States Army
TypeRiflemen
RoleLight infantry
SizeRegiment
PostsNew Orleans, Territory of Louisiana
Washington, Mississippi Territory
Fort Atkinson, Louisiana Purchase
WeaponsHarpers Ferry Model 1803
U.S. Model 1814
scalping knife
tomahawk,
EngagementsTecumseh's War

War of 1812

CampaignsBattle of Tippecanoe
War of 1812
Commanders
CommandersAlexander Smyth (1808–1812)
Thomas Adams Smith (1812–1814, 1815–1818)
George Washington Sevier(1814–1815)
Talbot Chambers (1818–1821)
Key Subordinate CommandersBenjamin Forsyth
Daniel Appling
Lodowick Morgan
Insignia
Cap insignia authorized in 1817

The Regiment of Riflemen was a unit of the U.S. Army in the early nineteenth century. Unlike the regular US line infantry units with muskets and bright blue and white uniforms, this regiment was focused on specialist light infantry tactics, and were accordingly issued rifles and dark green and black uniforms to take better advantage of cover. This was the first U.S. rifleman formation since the end of the American Revolutionary War 25 years earlier.[1]

Where can you find troops more efficient than Morgan's riflemen of the Revolution or Forsyth's riflemen of the last war with Great Britain?

— Major Bennet Riley, U.S. Army, Letter to Lewis F. Linn

The regiment was first activated in 1808. During the War of 1812, it was temporarily designated as the 1st Regiment of Riflemen when the War Department created three additional similar regiments. The regiment never fought as a unit. Companies, detachment from companies or collections of companies were stationed at a distance from each other and were often allocated to other commands. After the War, the other three regiments were inactivated and the regiment reverted to its unnumbered designation. The regiment was inactivated in June 1821.

  1. ^ John C. Fredriksen: The United States Army: A Chronology, 1775 to the Present. ABC-CLIO, 2010, p. 63.