This was made more complicated when President Abraham Lincoln began drafting soldiers to fight the Confederacy, as they needed military units to join.

[2] But the History of the 149th Infantry correctly states that, as the 2nd Kentucky, the regiment had many years of service before 1917.

The 38th Division deployed to Europe in October 1918, where it landed in France at the height of the German "Peace Offensives".

The regimental headquarters was organized 1 July 1922 and federally recognized at Frankfort, Kentucky.

Conducted annual summer training most years at Camp Knox, Kentucky, 1921–39.

The U.S. Army Center for Military History attributes lineage and honors to the Louisville unit further back than that.