C003203

Round shaped, brass colored coin, 2 inches in diameter.

SIDE 1 -

SIDE 2 -

Coin Number 303

The 2nd Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment in the United States Army that has served for more than two hundred years. Since the formation of the original 2nd Infantry Regiment in 1791, an active unit bearing the name "2nd Infantry" has served under every president from President George Washington until the present. The origin of the unit nickname, the Ramrods, originated in 1843 during the Seminole and Mexican Wars. Lieutenant Colonel Riley, who commanded the unit at the time, presented the regiment with a drum major's baton made from a cannon rammer with an inscribed silver knob. During the assault to capture the fortress at Chapultapec, Mexico in September 1847 Sergeant Major Samuel C. Green broke the baton when he struck an enemy soldier in the head with it. An artillery ramrod from that fortress was used to replace the broken wood on the baton, with the silver mountings transferred to it. Additional silver bands made from a tea set captured at the fortress were placed on the baton, one of them inscribed that the baton was made from the ramrod captured at Chapultapec. The baton changed hands several times and, in late 2012, was placed in the Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Kentucky.