Spanish–American War corps badges

After the declaration of war, General Order 36 of May 7, 1898 approved the organization of eight army corps, each of which was to consist of three divisions, of three brigades each. Each brigade was to have approximately 3,600 officers and enlisted men organized into three regiments and, with three such brigades, each division was to total about 11,000 officers and men. ^[1]

The army was going to reuse the corps badges from the Civil War. However, after protest from Civil War veterans who considered those designs to be their own, ^[2] new corps badges were created. ^[3] General Nelson A. Miles issued General Orders No. 99, on July 15, 1898 describing the badges.  The color of the corps badge repeated the Civil War Corps Badges. Each corps was divided into three divisions. The color of the badge was used to designate a division - the first division was designated as red, the second division was designated as white, and the third division designated as blue. A badge meant to symbolize the entire corps had all three colors and represented the headquarters. His orders outlined 18 Corps as well as cavalry and artillery. Only eight corps were raised during the conflict. The badges were enameled metal pins just as they had been for the Civil War.

Spanish American War Corps Badges
FIRST CORPS	SECOND CORPS	THIRD CORPS	FOURTH CORPS
FIFTH CORPS	SIXTH CORPS	SEVENTH CORPS	EIGHTH CORPS
CAVALRY CORPS	ARTILLERY CORPS	MEDICAL CORPS

See also

• First Army Corps (Spanish–American War)
• Second Army Corps (Spanish–American War)
• Third Army Corps (Spanish–American War)
• Fourth Army Corps (Spanish–American War)
• Fifth Army Corps (Spanish–American War)
• Sixth Army Corps (Spanish–American War)
• Seventh Army Corps (Spanish–American War)
• Eighth Army Corps (Spanish–American War)
• American Civil War corps badges

References

1. Kreidberg, Marvin; Henry, Morton (November 1955). History of Military Mobilization (PDF). Washington, DC: Department of the Army. pp. 144–145. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
2. "Corps - Spanish-American War". www.globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 2025-09-11.
3. "Corps Badges, 1898". www.spanamwar.com. Retrieved 2025-09-11.