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30-620: On May 22, 1863, the Union XIII Corps , under the command of Major General John A. McClernand , attacked this portion of the Vicksburg defenses at 10:00 a.m. Within the hour, several units were fighting in or near the ditch fronting the position. One regiment, the 22nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment , with close support from the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment , the 11th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment and

60-433: A ditch ten feet wide. A line of rifle pits connected it with others of the same kind, each of which was so arranged as to enfilade the approach to the other. The regiment succeeded in reaching—under a concentrated fire of grape and musketry—an almost impenetrable abatis, forty yards from the works, where it became necessary to reform the line, the men having become separated in crossing the obstructions. They promptly rallied to

90-493: A long time thorn in Grant's side and on June 19, Grant found an opportunity to remove him from command. His replacement was Edward O. C. Ord , a friend of Grant's who had just recovered from a wound sustained in 1862. Ord led the corps throughout the rest of the siege. After Vicksburg fell, William T. Sherman led an expedition back to Jackson, Mississippi to clear the city of Confederates which had gathered there. Sherman took with him

120-815: A post in Tennessee; Osterhaus had been reassigned to command a division in the XV Corps; Hovey took leave of the army due to the death of his wife; two of the divisions in the field were consolidated under the command of Cadwallader C. Washburn ; and General Herron's division was attached. General Banks used the XIII Corps to conduct his coastal campaign against Texas during the fall of 1863, capturing Brownsville . By February 1864 corps headquarters were in Texas and General McClernand had returned to command. The 1st and 2nd Divisions remained in Texas but Nathaniel P. Banks took with him

150-490: Is of 22nd Iowa Adjutant concerning the frontal assault of the Railroad Redoubt, on the morning of May 22, 1863: The enemy were on the alert and, as our colors rose above the crest of the hill, a thousand bayonets glistened in the sunlight above the parapet at Fort Beauregard. The strong work against which the main attack was directed covered about half an acre of ground, the walls being about fifteen feet high, surrounded by

180-512: The 77th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment , exploited a breach in the Redoubt created by artillery fire, and about a dozen members of the 22nd Iowa entered the defenses at that point. The survivors from that group occupied a forward portion of the position for some hours. The breach was not successfully reinforced, and the attackers not killed or wounded, along with members of supporting units, were forced back as darkness fell. The following report

210-751: The Siege of Vicksburg . XIII Corps (ACW) XIII Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War . It was first led by Ulysses S. Grant and later by John A. McClernand and Edward O.C. Ord . It served in the Western Theater of civil war, Trans-Mississippi Theater and along the Gulf of Mexico. The XIII Corps, along with the XIV Corps , were both put into commission on October 24, 1862 with

240-575: The 13th Army Corps arrived in Galveston, with Major General Gordon Granger, Commanding Officer, District of Texas. Granger delivered to Galveston General Orders, No.3 and No.4 on June 19th 1865. General Order No.3 informed all Texans that, "in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves were free." This day became known as Juneteenth among the newly freed slaves. The corps

270-475: The 1st Division in Texas became the official corps commander. General McClernand however assumed direct command of the two divisions fighting in Louisiana under Banks. McClernand was relieved of command due to ill health and Lawler himself personally commanded this detachment. Shortly after William P. Benton was assigned to the corps command but Lawler remained in command of the detachment in Louisiana. Lawler led

300-528: The 200 engaged in the assault, 42 were killed or died of their wounds, 128 wounded and 19 captured. Theirs was the highest toll suffered in any regiment of Grant's army in the siege of Vicksburg. Sergeant Leonidas M. Godley of Company E, although gravely wounded, survived the assault and was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1894 for his actions during the assault. In the end, the Confederate position held, bringing on

330-540: The 3rd and 4th Divisions during the Red River Campaign . During the first part of the campaign the corps was commanded by Thomas E. G. Ransom , the 3rd Division by General Robert A. Cameron and the 4th Division by Colonel William J. Landram. The corps fought at the Battle of Mansfield . Ransom was wounded at Mansfield and was succeeded in command of the corps by General Cameron. A few weeks later Michael K. Lawler of

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360-517: The I Corps (former XIII Corps). The divisions of Andrew J. Smith and Peter J. Osterhaus participated in the battle. Only Stephen Burbridge's brigade of Smith's division bore any heavy fighting. With the impending campaign against Vicksburg, Grant took personal command of the operation. McClernand returned to corps command and the Army of the Mississippi was merged back into the Army of the Tennessee and

390-546: The XIII Corps Detachment at the Battle of Mansura . The corps was discontinued on June 11, 1864. On February 18, 1865 it was reorganized under the command of Gordon Granger with three divisions commanded respectively by James C. Veatch , Christopher C. Andrews and William P. Benton . This new form of the XIII Corps fought in the Battle of Fort Blakeley which led to the fall of the city of Mobile, Alabama. In June of 1865, more than two thousand Federal soldiers of

420-583: The XIII Corps and attached to it the division under Jacob G. Lauman from the XVI Corps. General Carr, who temporarily left the army due to sickness, had been replaced in division command by William P. Benton. After the fall of Jackson the corps returned to Vicksburg and then transferred to the Department of the Gulf. The District of Eastern Arkansas had been detached from the Corps; AJ Smith had been reassigned to command

450-473: The XIII Corps faced in its early years was John A. McClernand's expedition against Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post. McClernand was given his XIII Corps and Sherman's XV Corps (now officially using that designation). McClernand labeled these forces the Army of the Mississippi and renamed the XIII Corps "I Corps" and the XV Corps "II Corps". McClernand commanded the Army and placed General George W. Morgan in command of

480-509: The XIII Corps fought the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou on December 26–29. Although the official date which the Right Wing was designated the XV Corps was December 22, most of the reports regarding the battle at Chickasaw Bluffs still refer to the Union forces as part of the XIII Corps. No matter the designation, it was the first time many of the troops had been under fire. Adding to the identity crisis

510-457: The XIII Corps took on its official title. As the Vicksburg campaign opened the XIII Corps was composed of the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Divisions commanded respectively by Osterhaus, Andrew Jackson Smith , Alvin P. Hovey , Leonard F. Ross and Eugene A. Carr . Ross' division was stationed in Arkansas during the entire campaign and did not participate in any engagements with the rest of

540-578: The XV Corps final commander. The XV Corps' badge was a shield with a cartridge box in the middle with the Corps motto "40 Rounds." The badge and motto originated from the Western XV Corps' rivalry with the eastern XII Corps . When the Western and Eastern soldiers finally met up near Chattanooga in late 1863, the XI and XII Corps soldiers bragged about their crescent and star-shaped corps badges. When asked what badge

570-470: The XV Corps had (The XV Corps did not have one yet at the time), an Irish soldier of the XV Corps said, "Moon and stars is it? Sure it was the light of both ye needed to find your way home from Chancellorsville!" (The XI Corps had been routed at that battle) whereupon he slapped his cartridge box and said, "Corps badge? This is the badge of the Fifteenth Corps; 40 rounds!" This saying eventually reached

600-474: The attack on the Confederate right. Immediately following the victory at Champion's Hill the Battle of Big Black River Bridge was again fought exclusively by the XIII Corps, Carr's division bearing the brunt of the fight. When Grant initiated siege operations the XIII Corps took up a position on the Union left. During the assaults on Vicksburg the XIII Corps lost nearly 1,500 soldiers. McClernand had been

630-504: The corps into the Right, Left and Center wings. In December 1862 it was officially divided into the XIII Corps, XV Corps , XVI Corps and XVII Corps . Grant remained in command of the Army of the Tennessee and John A. McClernand assumed command of the XIII Corps. Before the official order was passed along to all the wing commanders, William T. Sherman, commander of the Right Wing, embarked on an expedition against Vicksburg. Sherman's wing of

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660-503: The corps. In July, this division (now led by Frederick Salomon ) fought at the Battle of Helena as part of the District of Eastern Arkansas under Benjamin M. Prentiss . The Battle of Port Gibson was fought by the XIII Corps, with the aid of a portion of the XVII Corps. McClernand did not bring the full force of the corps to bear at the Battle of Champion Hill but Hovey's division led

690-424: The ears of General Logan. He soon sent out the following circular to his men: 'The following is announced as the badge of this corps: A miniature cartridge box, black, set transversely on a field of cloth or metal: above the cartridge box plate will be stamped or marked in a curve, the motto "Forty Rounds".' An alternate retelling of the tale behind the unique corps-badge, as given by Sherman in his Memoirs : 'It

720-432: The flag and were again led to the charge. A few officers and about fifty men, succeeded in reaching the ditch surrounding the fort, but, having no scaling ladders, they were unable to enter the works. Sergeant Joseph E. Griffith of the 22nd, with some fifteen or twenty men, succeeded—by raising one another up the wall—in gaining an entrance and capturing a number of prisoners, but the fire from the enemy's rifle pits in rear of

750-445: The fort, and the lack of reinforcements coming to their aid, rendered the place untenable. Sergeant Griffith and David Trine, of Company I, were the only survivors of this daring exploit. Only two men of the 22nd Iowa who entered the fort survived. This was the last frontal assault of Fort Beauregard ever attempted. Afterwards Vicksburg was defeated using long term siege tactics. The 22nd Iowa's losses at Railroad Redoubt were heavy. Of

780-472: The passing of General Orders No. 168 . These two corps were the first corps created in the Western Theater. While the XIV Corps constituted all forces under the command of William S. Rosecrans , the XIII Corps likewise constituted all the forces under Ulysses S. Grant . Because of the corps' immense size and the fact that it was virtually synonymous with the Army of the Tennessee , Grant chose to subdivide

810-636: Was commanded by Sherman in the siege of Vicksburg and then by Maj. Gen. John A. Logan in Sherman's Atlanta Campaign . Brig. Gen. Peter J. Osterhaus commanded the corps in the March to the Sea , but Logan was back in command during Sherman's Carolina Campaign . When General Howard became head of the Freedman's Bureau, Logan became the commander of the Army of the Tennessee for the final march to Washington. William Hazen became

840-428: Was discontinued for the final time July 20, 1865. The men of the XIII Corps were never assigned a designated official corps badge and therefore never wore any form of a corps badge during the war. XV Corps (Union Army) The XV Army Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War . It served in the Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman . It

870-479: Was marked with a star) asked if they were all brigadier-generals. Of course they were not, but the star was their corps-badge, and every wagon, tent, hat, etc., had its star. Then the Twelfth-Corps men inquired what corps be belonged to, and he answered, "The Fifteenth Corps." "What is your badge?" "Why," said he (and he was an Irishman), suiting the action to the word, "forty rounds in the cartridge-box, and twenty in

900-487: Was on this occasion that the Fifteenth Corps gained its peculiar badge: as the men were trudging along the deeply-cut, muddy road, of a cold, drizzly day, one of our Western soldiers left his ranks and joined a party of the Twelfth Corps at their camp-fire. They got into conversation, the Twelfth-Corps men asking what troops we were, etc., etc. In turn, our fellow (who had never seen a corps-badge, and noticed that every thing

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