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V Corps Civil War Facts
Army of the Potomac
| The V Corps was organized May 18, 1862, while the Army of the Potomac, to which it belonged, was engaged on the Peninsular campaign. It was formed by taking Porter's Division away from the Third Corps, and uniting with it Sykes' Division of Regular troops, making a provisional corps of 2 divisions. This action was confirmed by the War Department, July 22, 1862, whereupon, the term "Fifth Provisional" was dropped, and it became the V Corps/ Army of the Potomac. Banks' Corpshad been officially designated as the V | V Corps Flag  |
It was permanently organized, with Gen. Fitz John Porter as the corps commander, and with Gens. Morell and Sykes in command of the 2 divisions.
The first battle of the corps occurred at Hanover Court House, Virginia on May 27, 1862, an engagement in which Morell's Division stood the brunt of the fighting, and won a creditable victory. On May 31st, the returns showed 17,546 present for duty. On June 14th, its ranks were increased by the accession of McCall's Division of Pennsylvania Reserves, 9,500 strong, which served with the V Corps during the Peninsular campaign, but left it upon the return to Washington, the Reserves rejoining McDowell's Corps, from which they had been detached.
The battle of Gaines' Mill was fought, almost entirely, by the V Corps and Slocum's Division of the VI Corps, the whole under command of Porter. His troops held their position stoutly, although the attacking forces comprised the entire Confederate Army, with the exception of Magruder's command. At Glendale, the division of Pennsylvania Reserves was hotly engaged, and at Malvern Hill some of Porter's regiments were again in the thickest of the fight. The loss of the corps in the Seven Days Battle was 995 killed, 3,805 wounded, and 2,801 captured or missing; total, 7,601, or half the entire loss of the army. Of these casualties, 6,837 occurred at Gaines' Mill; the remainder at Mechanicsville, Glendale, and Malven Hill.
The next battle was Manassas/Bull Run (Second), where the corps, still under command of Gen. Porter, did some of the best fighting on that field, the largest regimental loss, in killed and wounded, in Pope's entire Army at that battle, occurring in the Duryeé Zouaves, one of Porter's regiments. The 2 small divisions of Morell and Sykes sustained a loss there of 331 killed, 1,362 wounded, and 456 missing; a total of 2,151, out of about 6,500 engaged; Griffin's Brigade not being in action.
At Antietam, Porter's Corps was held in reserve; still, it was drawn on freely during the day, so that Sykes' Division was, almost wholly, in action. Soon after this battle, a third division was assigned to the corps, taking the place of the Pennsylvania Reserves. This new division was commanded by Humphreys, and was composed of 2 brigades; the regiments were all from Pennsylvania and were mostly 9-months men, newly recruited.
Gen. Daniel Butterfield commanded the corps at Fredericksburg, and Gens. Griffin, Sykes, and Humphreys the divisions; loss, 206 killed, 1,669 wounded, and 300 missing; total, 2,175. Over half of the loss fell on Humphreys' new recruits, who made a dashing attempt, under his personal leadership, to carry Marye's Heights after all other efforts had failed.
Gen. Meade succeeded Butterfield, and led the corps to Chancellorsville, where it was but partially engaged; loss, 69 killed, 472 wounded, and 159 missing. The time of the 9-months regiments in Humphreys' Division expired soon after Chancellorsville, and that division was necessarily discontinued; but upon the news of Gen. Robert E. Lee's invasion, in 1863, the Pennsylvania Reserves, who were then on duty in Washington, D.C., petitioned that they be allowed to march to the defence of their state. Accordingly, 2 brigades of the Reserves rejoined the Army of the Potomac, and were assigned to the V Corps, in which they again served as the 3rd Division, this time under command of Gen. S. W. Crawford.
Meade having been promoted to the command of the Army, just before the battle of Gettysburg, Sykes succeeded to his place; the divisions were commanded at Gettysburg by Gens. Barnes, Ayres, and Crawford. The corps distinguished itself in that battle by its fighting in the wheat-field, and also by the gallant action of Vincent's Brigade in seizing Little Round Top, just in time to save the Army from what might have been a serious disaster. The corps' loss at Gettysburg was 365 killed, 1,611 wounded, and 211 missing; a total of 2,187, out of about 11,000 actually engaged.
The regular troops of the Army of the Potomac were all in the V Corps, 2nd (Ayres') Division, and at Gettysburg these 2 brigades, under Cols. Day and Burbank, again displayed that marked efficiency which, at Gaines' Mill and on other fields, had made them famous, their thinned ranks becoming again sadly depleted under the terrible fire which they encountered.
Sykes remained in command, and handled the corps on the Mine Run campaign; the division generals were Bartlett, Ayres, and Crawford.
In March, 1864, the I Corps was transferred to the V, and Gen. G. K. Warren was assigned to the command. The 1st and 2nd Divisions of the V Corps were consolidated, forming the 1st Division, under Griffin, while the 3rd Division--Crawford's Pennsylvania Reserves- remained unchanged; the I Corps had been consolidated into 2 divisions, prior to the transfer, which now became the 2nd and 4th Divisions of the V Corps, under command, respectively, of Gens. Robinson and Wadsworth. Under this reorganization, the V Corps contained 67 regiments of infantry, and 9 batteries of light artillery (48 guns), numbering in all 25,695 officers and men "present for duty, equipped."
Gen. Wadsworth was killed in the battle of the Wilderness, and Gen. Robinson was severely wounded, losing a leg at Spotsylvania. Gen. Cutler, of the Iron Brigade, succeeded to Wadsworth's command, while Robinson's Division was broken up, and its regiments were distributed to the other 3 divisions. The losses of the V Corps, at the Wilderness, May 5th and 6th, were 487 killed, 2,817 wounded, and 1,828 missing; total, 5,132.
At Spotsylvania, May 8th-13th, it lost 657 killed, 3,448 wounded, and 375 missing; total, 4,480.
During the hard fighting and bloody assaults at Cold Harbor, the V Corps was in line at Bethesda Church, a point on the extreme right, where it was engaged in some sharp actions along the skirmish line, in which it sustained a considerable loss. It also took part in the assaults on Petersburg, June 18, 1864, losing 389 killed, 1,899 wounded, and 38 missing; after which it took its place in the trenches preparatory to the long siege which followed. During the seige it was engaged, August 19th, in the battle at the Weldon Railroad, in which a large number of the men were captured. In this action the divisions were commanded by Griffin, Ayres, and Crawford, these officers remaining in command of their divisions until the close of the war.
On October 27th the Corps participated in the first of the battles at Hatcher's Run (Boydton Road), in which it sustained a loss of 279. On February 5th, 1865, it was again engaged at Hatcher's Run (Dabney's Mills), with a loss of 1,319 killed, wounded, and missing.
On March 31, 1865, just before the final campaign, the morning reports show the corps strength to have been 17,073, "present for duty, equipped." In the closing battles of the war, from March 29th to April 9th, 1865--including Gravelly Run, White Oak Road, and Five Forks--the casualties in the corps aggregated 2,465 in killed, wounded, and missing. Its last battle was fought at Five Forks, in which action the corps, still under Warren, captured 3,244 men, 11 flags, and 1 battery of artillery.
The war having ended, the organization was discontinued, June 28, 1865.
Major Battles Fought In
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