page_title: Army National Guard and Active Regular Army Units with Colonial Roots
section_title: 198th Signal Battalion, DE ARNG (First Delaware)
hierarchical_section_title: Army National Guard and Active Regular Army Units with Colonial Roots / 198th Signal Battalion, DE ARNG (First Delaware)
caption_attribution_description: English: Distinctive Unit Insignia: 198 Sig Bn
context_page_description: Thirty federally recognized units in the U.S. Army have lineages that go back to the colonial era. Twenty-nine are National Guard units; one is a Regular Army Field Artillery battalion. Of the twenty-nine National Guard units, twenty-eight trace their origins to units initially organized in the English colonies; one is derived from militias formed on Puerto Rico when that island was still under Spanish rule.
  The units from the English colonies were formed during three distinct periods. The first eight, formed between 1636 and 1672, were formed for frontier defense shortly after settlements were established in New England and Virginia. The next eight, formed between 1735 and 1756, were raised for a variety of functions, including frontier defense, expansion into new areas further inland from the original settlements, and for actions against native tribes allied with the French, who were challenging the British for the control of North America. The last group of twelve, formed between 1774 and 1778, were raised for their immediate use in the Revolutionary War.
  The units are listed chronologically from oldest to newest.
context_section_description: Revolutionary War Campaigns: Long Island, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Yorktown, Cowpens, Guilford Court House, New York 1776, New York 1777, South Carolina 1780, South Carolina 1781, South Carolina 1782, North Carolina 1781
  The 198th Signal Battalion has descended from the Delaware Regiment, constituted in the Continental Army on December 9, 1775, and organized during January–March 1776 as Colonel John Haslet’s Regiment.
  The regiment was reorganized as Colonel David Hall’s Regiment between December 12, 1776, and March 1, 1777.  Its most noteworthy action was at the Battle of Cowpens in January 1781, where a British force of 1,100 Regulars suffered over 800 casualties in a battle against 300 Continentals and 700 militia from North and South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.
  Following the Revolutionary War, the companies of the Delaware Regiment were reorganized as the Light Infantry, 1st Regiment, the Artillery Company, 2nd Brigade, and the 1st Company, Light Infantry, 8th Regiment, all three of which were mustered into service for the War of 1812.
  For the rest of the eighteenth century and until the end of World War I in the twentieth century, the 1st Delaware served primarily as Infantry.  Following World War I it became a Coast Artillery unit; during World War II and for a while thereafter, an Antiaircraft Artillery unit; and finally in 1970 it was reorganized as the 198th Signal Battalion.
  The shield of the Distinctive Unit Insignia is white, the old color of Infantry. The eleven mullets represent the eleven battles and campaigns in which the organization served during the Civil War, and the red fleur-de-lis is for World War I service. Red is also the color of the Coast Artillery.  The Distinctive Unit Insignia was originally approved for the 198th Coast Artillery and later redesignated for the 736th Antiaircraft Artillery Gun Battalion.  It became the Distinctive Unit Insignia of the 198th Signal Battalion on October 19, 1978.
caption: Distinctive Unit Insignia: 198th Sig Bn
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