Army did not correspond to the numbering of the seven infantry regiments that existed before the contraction. The numerical designations of the new regiments were determined by the seniority of the commanding officers, i.e., the regiment with the most senior commanding officer was designated as the 1st Infantry, while the regiment with the next most senior colonel became the 2nd Infantry, and so on. This reorganization caused considerable consternation among many in the Army, who considered it an attack on regimental traditions. At the core of this dispute was whether the seven new regiments shared a heritage with the older regiments with the same numerical designation (the veterans of the War of 1812 felt strongly that they did), or whether a regiment's heritage followed its organizational history no matter what changes in numerical designation might have occurred (the official War Department policy). This contradiction between sentiment and logic went unresolved, and was largely ignored, for the next fifty years, during which time the soldiers in the seven infantry regiments continued to claim a shared heritage with the earlier units with the same number, while the official policy was that heritage was defined entirely by organizational history. A resolution of this smoldering conflict was forced upon the Army in the aftermath of the Civil War, when it became official policy that regiments would display their battle histories on their colors or in the form of streamers representing participation in specific battles or campaigns. Infantry regiments numbering 1–7, in direct violation of War Department policy, proudly claimed credit for campaigns earned by the older regiments with the same numerical designation. Finally, in 1896, the War Department yielded to sentiment and ordered that the new regiments formed in 1815 could claim credit for campaigns awarded to earlier regiments with the same number. But the last word had not yet been spoken, and during the 1920s there was a series of reversals of policy and reversals of reversals. In 1920 the War Department reversed the 1896 policy, issuing a ruling that forbade existing regiments from claiming credit for campaigns earned by earlier units on the basis numerical designation and denying any historical linkage between units based upon numerical designation. Needless to say, this announcement caused great anguish among the soldiers in the regiments. The official edict is reproduced below in full. II. Rules for tracing history of units (Cir. No. 80, W. D., 1920).