126th Regimental Association April 2022 Newsletter
Fall Meeting and Dinner SAVE THE DATE! Our annual meeting and dinner will return to the Grand Valley Armory, 1200 44th Street SW in Wyoming, on Saturday evening, October 1, 2022. We’d love to see you attend and participate in all the activities listed: 1600 hrs Historical archive room in armory open for visitors 1700 hrs Annual Business Meeting in the Red Arrow Room off the front lobby 1800 hrs Social Hour in the NCO Club behind the armory 1845 hrs Opening formalities followed by a delicious catered dinner in the NCO Club Freedom Room Drawings and other closing activities will follow Watch for more details and reservation information in the August newsletter.
3rd Bn 126th Infantry Update As of the date of this newsletter, Company B 3-126 Infantry is conducting overseas training in Tunisia in lieu of its Annual Training which normally takes place at Camp Grayling. Training is being conducted with multiple countries and branches of service. Although Michigan is not partnered with Tunisia, our state was afforded this unique opportunity. B Company’s training focus is conducting a Squad Live Fire Exercise. They will also participate in a culminating Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise event. The other Infantry companies from the Iron Battalion will also conduct a Squad Live Fire Exercise at Camp Grayling during their scheduled Annual Training.
“Save the Flags”
At the conclusion of the Civil War, representatives from a large contingent of Michigan regiments converged on Detroit and turned over their colors they had carried into battle to the State of Michigan. For many decades, those colors hung in relative obscurity in the Capitol rotunda in Lansing. Following the 1898 War with Spain and World War
I, once again the colors and standards of the regiments and division were put on display. Fast forward to the 1990s capitol renovation, and it was clear that time and the wearand-tear of battle were not kind to the banners and many, especially those from the Civil War period, were disintegrating. That’s when “Save the Flags” got started beginning with removing, researching, documenting, and storing these original flags in a secure, environment-controlled archive. Since then, funds have been raised through an “adoption” effort to support conservation efforts which can be fairly expensive. The 126th Infantry traces its lineage to several of these colors beginning with the Third Michigan Infantry of the Civil War. There is very little left of those two banners that saw hard battle during its three years in the Army of the Potomac. It is now at a conservator located in West Virginia and we hope to be able to see the results of this effort sometime this summer or fall. We’ll share photos of those colors after they return. Next here are the regimental colors and national banner of the 32nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry from 1898. The photos are shown in black-and-white due to our newsletter printing limitations.