These companies along with several others from Ionia formed the 51st Volunteer Uniformed Michigan Militia Regiment prior to the American Civil War.

On 13 June 1861 the Third Regiment marched out of Cantonment Anderson in Grand Rapids, Michigan towards the recently constructed railroad depot near Leonard and Plainfield streets, where it boarded and departed the area for the war.

While attached to Richardson’s brigade of Colonel Miles’s Division, the Third participated in its first engagement against Confederate forces just thirty-eight days after being federalized.

On 21 July, the Third marched with Richardson’s brigade back to Blackburn’s ford to keep the rebels occupied while the rest of McDowell’s army hit the Confederate’s left flank.

Major Champlin, who had originally organized Ringgold's Light Artillery back in 1855, assumed command of the regiment on 28 October 1861, and under him, the Third went into winter quarters at Alexandria, Virginia.

That next March, the Third Michigan was assigned to General Berry’s Brigade of the Third Red Diamond Division and entered the Peninsula campaign.

Several months following Lee's surrender in April 1865, a great homecoming by the citizens of Grand Rapids was held for the returning heroes.

In the months and years that followed, veterans' groups were formed under the banner of the Grand Army of the Republic; however, the Old Third Michigan didn't organize an association until 23 February 1871.

It was called out to aid authorities during a riot at the Muskegon County jail in 1873 and to quell a disturbance at Greenville during the Flat River labor dispute in 1874.

Over the course of the next 24 years through various reorganizations the 2nd Infantry included companies from Coldwater, Kalamazoo, Flint, Bay City, East Saginaw, Port Huron, Marquette, Niles, Ionia, Manistee, Big Rapids, Three Rivers, and Grand Haven.

Shortly thereafter, the regiment departed for El Paso, Texas, arriving at Camp Cotton on 12 July, located a mere three hundred yards from the Mexican border.

Upon its arrival, regular army inspectors took note of the excellent condition of the regiment and the short amount of time it took to get settled into camp.

In September, it was ordered to Camp MacArthur, Texas, where it underwent another major reorganization to become part of the 32nd Division, which included Michigan and Wisconsin troops.

PFC Joseph William Guyton, the first American killed on German-held territory in WWI, was posthumously awarded the French Croix de guerre.

The 126th Infantry arrived at the port of Boston, Massachusetts, on 14 May 1919 on the troopship USS F. J. Luckenbach and was demobilized 24 May–2 June 1919 at Camp Custer, Michigan.

The camp was named in honor of Corporal Gerald Cable, the first member of the 32nd Division killed by the Japanese during World War II.

[6]: 108  They had leather toilet seats[7] but no machetes, insect repellent, waterproof containers for medicine or personal effects, and it rained heavily every day.

[12] The 126th RCT/32nd Infantry Division was selected to lead Operation Michaelmas to capture Saidor, bypassing the Japanese garrison at Sio to the east.

Transferred from Goodenough Island, troops from the U.S. 6th Army, 126th/32 ID, plus the 120th Field Artillery, arrived on January 2, 1944, aboard LSTs and landing craft.

[20] Ceremonies were held along the route and included veterans of the Grand Rapids Guard, which had been part of the Thirty-second Division during both world wars.

Although US-12 was later moved when Interstate 94 was built, portions of the Red Arrow Highway still exist between Kalamazoo and New Buffalo A devastating tornado struck the Hudsonville, Standale, Comstock Park, and northern Grand Rapids areas on 3 April 1956.

The Third Battalion 126th Infantry was ordered to state active duty on 31 August 1966, following four nights of racial violence at Benton Harbor, Michigan.

The Michigan National Guard was ordered to state active duty the next day, to prevent possible outbreaks of violence similar to the previous summer (such as those in Detroit, Newark, Tampa, Buffalo, Plainfield).

The Forty-sixth Brigade and Third Battalion moved to Belle Isle for two days before being released from state duty on the tenth of April and returning to their home stations.

On 13 October 1990, fifty years after being mobilized for World War II, the 126th Infantry Regiment, including veterans of many of the "old 126th" and "Red Arrow" units, paraded through the city of Grand Rapids and were honored by many state and local dignitaries.

The occasion marked the anniversary of the mobilization of National Guard troops prior to World War II, and the grand old 126th Infantry’s 135th birthday.

On 3 June 1991, the city of Wyoming, under Mayor Harold Voorhees, passed a resolution designating Forty-fourth Street as 126th Infantry Memorial Boulevard.

Following the attack on the United States on 11 September 2001, elements of the 126th Armor were mobilized stateside under Operation Noble Eagle for Airbase Security Enforcement at both TACOM and Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

On 4 January 2005, a company-sized element of the battalion was mobilized at Fort Dix, New Jersey for (Security Forces) training, and then later deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

On 20 May 2012, two vehicles from C-Troop 1–126 hit Improvised Explosive Devices (IED's) while conducting combat and security patrols in the Shah Wali Kot district of Afghanistan.