During the American Civil War, the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry was reorganized into units of the First Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, under General James Longstreet in 1861.

The battalions of the South Carolina regiment first saw action at the First Battle of Bull Run, where the Union Army was defeated.

Shortly after, the South Carolinians fought again at the Battle of Seven Pines, where the Union advance on Richmond, Virginia was stopped even though the Confederate forces did not deliver a decisive defeat.

[1] In December of the same year, General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia defeated Union General Ambrose E. Burnside's Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Fredericksburg, where Union forces repeatedly made frontal assaults across open ground against fortified Confederate positions.

[citation needed] The string of southern victories came to an end when Robert E. Lee was decisively defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg between 1 and 3 July 1863 by the Army of the Potomac under General George G. Meade.

[citation needed] The Retreat from Gettysburg was arduous, and the weakened South Carolinians were defeated again at the Battle of Lookout Mountain in November 1863.

"Black Jack" Pershing's Punitive Expedition to protect U.S. border towns from Mexican General Pancho Villa's forces.

[2][3] On 8 October, 1LT James C. Dozier of G Company, was in command of 2 platoons, and was painfully wounded in the shoulder early in the attack, but he continued to lead his men displaying the highest bravery and skill.

Creeping up to the position in the face of intense fire, he killed the entire crew with hand grenades and his pistol and a little later captured a number of Germans who had taken refuge in a dugout nearby.

The officer was wounded, but Foster continued on alone in the face of the heavy fire and by effective use of hand grenades and his pistol killed several of the enemy and captured 18.

The 118th Infantry arrived at the port of Charleston on 27 March 1919 on the USS Pocahontas and was demobilized on 1 April 1919 at Camp Jackson, South Carolina.

[6] While Germany and Fascist Italy were in the process of conquering most of Europe in 1939 and 1940, and the Empire of Japan grabbing territory in the Pacific and China, the United States felt unprepared in the event war was necessary to combat the Axis Powers and began mobilizing its army in response.

They left Fort Jackson and went to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, and departed from New York City on 5 August 1942 bound for Iceland.

The 118th arrived in France on 13 December 1944 and was rushed to the city of Givet to defend a bridge across the Meuse River against the German counteroffensive during the Battle of the Bulge.

The regiment has stepped up to serve at home many times, aiding authorities in the wake of civil disturbances and natural disasters like Hurricane Hugo in 1989.