The 2nd Infantry Battalion "Independents" (2/1) is a battalion of the 1st Marine Raider Regiment consisting of three companies, a weapons company and a headquarters and service company. The 2nd Battalion primarily recruits from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Subordinate Units[]
Company D
Company E
Company F
Weapons Company
Headquarters and Service Company
Campaign Credit[]
American Revolutionary War
- New York Campaign
- Philedelphia Campaign
- Yorktown Campaign
Whiskey Rebellion
Quasi-War
First Barbary War
War of 1812
- St. Lawrence/Lake Champlain Frontier
Mexican American War
- Texas Campaign
- Mexico City Campaign
American Civil War
- Western Virginia Campaign
- Manassas Campaign
- Shenandoah Valley Campaign
- Northern Virginia Campaign
- Maryland Campaign
- Fredricksburg Campaign
- Chancellorsville Campaign
- Gettysburg Campaign
- Bristoe Campaign
- Mine Run Campaign
- Overland Campaign
- Richmond-Petersburg Campaign
- Appomattox Campaign
United States expedition to Korea
Spanish-American War
- Cuban Campaign
- Puerto Rican Campaign
Boxer Rebellion
United States occupation of Nicaragua
World War I
- Spring Offensive
- Belleau Wood Campaign
- Hundred Days Offensive
- Meuse-Argonne Offensive
Russian Civil War
- North Russia Intervention
World War II
- North African Campaign
- Invasion of Normandy
- Siegfried Line Campaign
- Ardennes Counteroffensive
- Western Allied Invasion of Germany
Korean War
- United Nations Command Counteroffensive
- Chinese Intervention
- Stalemate
Vietnam War
- American Intervention
- Tet Offensive
- Drawdown (Vietnamization)
Lebanese Civil War
- Multinational Force in Lebanon
Gulf War
- Coalition Intervention
- Liberation of Kuwait Campaign
Bosnian War
- Implementation Force
Kosovo War
- Kosovo Force
Iraq War
- Invasion of Iraq
- Al Anbar Province
War in Afghanistan
- Invasion of Afghanistan
- Helmand Province Campaign
Traditions[]
The 2nd Infantry Battalion received its nickname in 1777, when the raiders of the battalion held off a vastly superior British force at the Battle of Brandywine in a temporary rearguard action. After the battle, a Continental Army officer asked the Major of the battalion how it was possible that an understrength battalion had checked a larger enemy force. The Major is said to have replied, "These men, Captain, they are the spirit of independence."
Delta Company ("the New York company"), 2nd Infantry Battalion lost every single one of its officers fighting heavily outnumbered at the Wheatfield and Peach Orchard on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Among the dead was Medal of Honor recipient Captain William T. Vandermeer, who had been shot through the neck and killed instantly after expending all of his ammunition. To commemorate these heavy casualties, officers of the Company wear red tassels on the hilts of their swords. This tradition was extended to the rest of the battalion in 1909, and since, all officers of the 2nd Infantry Battalion proudly wear the "blood tassel".