While the 17th Infantry Regiment was organized on January 11th, 1812, it was consolidated with the 3rd Infantry and lost it's identity two years later until May 3rd, 1861, when it was reorganized.

The 17th Infantry Regiment was in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War in Sykes' Division of the 5th Army Corps, the badge of which was a white cross patee, which is embodied in the coat of arms and shown on the blue field above and to the left of the stone wall.

At Fredericksburg the 17th suffered heavy losses in the assault on the famous stone wall, "For one entire day, (December 14th) the men of the 17th lay flat on their faces eighty yards in front of the famous stone wall, behind which the enemy was posted in large numbers and any movement on their part was sure to draw the fire of rebel sharpshooters.

The five-bastioned fort, shown on the blue shield above and to the right of the stone wall, was the badge of the 5th Army Corps in Cuba in 1898.

The buffalo, shown on the blue shield bellow the stone wall represents the Regiment's glorious history in the Korean war. The "Buffalo" nick name was adopted after one of the Regiments Commanding Officers in the Korean war, Col. William W. "Buffalo Bill" Quinn.

The shield is blue, being the color representing the infantry.

The Crest is a sea lion taken from the Spanish Arms of Manila for the fighting around that city in 1899.

The two arrows represent the Indian campaigns in which the 17th Regiment participated.

Civil War

Peninsula
Manassas
Antietam
Fredericksburg
Chancellorsville
Gettysburg
Wilderness
Spotsylvania
Cold Harbor
Petersburg
Virginia 1862
Virginia 1863

Indian Wars

Little Big Horn
Pine Ridge
North Dakota 1872

War with Spain

Santiago

Philippine Insurrection

Manila
Malolos
San Isidro
Tarlac
Mindanao
Luzon 1899
Luzon 1900

Mexican Expedition

Mexico 1916-1917

World War II

Aleutian Islands (with arrowhead)
Eastern Mandates (with arrowhead)
Leyte Ryukyus (with arrowhead)

Korean War

UN Defensive
UN Offensive
CCF Intervention
First UN Counteroffensive
CCF Spring Offensive
UN Summer-Fall Offensive
Second Korean Winter
Korea, Summer-Fall 1952
Third Korean Winter
Korea, Summer 1953

Vietnam

Counteroffensive, Phase VII
Consolidation I
Consolidation II
Cease-Fire

Armed Forces Expeditions

Panama (with arrowhead)
Operation Just Cause: 1989-1990

Iraq

Operation Iraqi Freedom: August 2005 to December 2006
Mosul and Baghdad

Afghanistan

Operation Enduring Freedom: July 2009 to July 2010
Operation Enduring Freedom: May 2012 to May 2013

• Presidential Unit Citation (Army), Streamer embroidered LEYTE
• Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, Streamer embroidered 17 OCTOBER 1944 TO 4 JULY 1945
• Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, Streamer embroidered INCHON
• Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, Streamer embroidered KOREA 1950-1953
• Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, Streamer embroidered KOREA 1952-1953
• Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, Streamer embroidered KOREA 1945-1948; 1953-1957