The XIII Corps, along with the XIV Corps, were both put into commission on October 24, 1862 with 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 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 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.
Arkansas Post
Adding to the identity crisis 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 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.
Vicksburg
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 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 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 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 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 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.
Texas and Louisiana
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 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.
Red River
The 1st and 2nd Divisions remained in Texas but Nathaniel P. Banks took with him 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 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 the XIII Corps Detachment at the Battle of Mansura.
Mobile
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 Blakely which led to the fall of the city of Mobile, Alabama. The corps was discontinued for the final time July 20, 1865.
The men of the XIII Corps were never designated an official corps badge[vague] and therefore never wore any form of a corps badge during the war.
The siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, led by Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The Battle of Arkansas Post, also known as Battle of Fort Hindman, was fought from January 9 to 11, 1863, near the mouth of the Arkansas River at Arkansas Post, Arkansas, as part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. Confederate forces had constructed a fort known as Fort Hindman near Arkansas Post in late 1862. In December of that year, a Union force under the command of Major-General William T. Sherman left for an expedition against Vicksburg, without Major-General John A. McClernand because neither Major-Generals Henry Halleck nor Ulysses S. Grant trusted McClernand. After Sherman's force was repulsed at Chickasaw Bayou, McClernand arrived and took command from Sherman in January 1863.
Edward Otho Cresap Ord was an American engineer and United States Army officer who saw action in the Seminole War, the Indian Wars, and the American Civil War. He commanded an army during the final days of the Civil War, and was instrumental in forcing the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. He also designed Fort Sam Houston. He died in Havana, Cuba of yellow fever.
The Vicksburg campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater of the American Civil War directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. Grant gained control of the river by capturing this stronghold and defeating Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's forces stationed there.
The Army of the Tennessee was a Union army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, named for the Tennessee River.
Army of the Mississippi was the name given to two Union armies that operated around the Mississippi River, both with short existences, during the American Civil War.
John Alexander McClernand was an American lawyer and politician, and a Union general in the American Civil War. He was a prominent Democratic politician in Illinois and a member of the United States House of Representatives before the war. McClernand was firmly dedicated to the principles of Jacksonian democracy and supported the Compromise of 1850.
The XVI Army Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The corps rarely fought as one unified unit, as its divisions were often scattered across the country.
XVII Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was organized December 18, 1862 as part of Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee. It was most notably commanded by Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson and Maj. Gen. Francis P. Blair II, and served in the Western Theater.
The Battle of Big Black River Bridge was fought on May 17, 1863, as part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. After a Union army commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant defeated Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's Confederate army at the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, Pemberton ordered Brigadier General John S. Bowen to hold a rear guard at the crossing of the Big Black River to buy time for the Confederate army to regroup. Union troops commanded by Major General John McClernand pursued the Confederates, and encountered Bowen's rear guard. A Union charge quickly broke the Confederate position, and during the retreat and river crossing, a rout ensued.
The Battle of Port Gibson was fought near Port Gibson, Mississippi, on May 1, 1863, between Union and Confederate forces during the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. The Union Army was led by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and was victorious.
The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, also called the Battle of Walnut Hills, fought December 26–29, 1862, was the opening engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign during the American Civil War. Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton repulsed an advance by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman that was intended to lead to the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi.
The Western Theater of the American Civil War encompassed major military operations in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Louisiana east of the Mississippi River. Operations on the coasts of these states, except for Mobile Bay, are considered part of the Lower Seaboard Theater. Most other operations east of the Appalachian Mountains are part of the Eastern Theater. Operations west of the Mississippi River took place in the Trans-Mississippi Theater.
The 33rd Illinois Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment from Illinois that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. A number of the soldiers were college students and graduates, and for a time the regiment included a 17-piece band. The unit fought at Fredericktown in 1861, Cotton Plant in 1862, the Vicksburg campaign and Fort Esperanza in 1863, and at Spanish Fort in 1865. The original enlistees were mustered out in October 1864 while the veterans and recruits were mustered out in December 1865.
Peter Joseph Osterhaus was a German-American Union Army general in the American Civil War and later served as a diplomat.
The Jackson Expedition occurred in the aftermath of the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in July 1863. Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led the expedition to clear General Joseph E. Johnston's relief effort from the Vicksburg area. The mission was successful and helped ensure that the Mississippi River remained in Union possession for the remainder of the war.
The 127th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Ulysses S. Grant was the most acclaimed Union general during the American Civil War and was twice elected president. Grant began his military career as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1839. After graduation he went on to serve with distinction as a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War. Grant was a keen observer of the war and learned battle strategies serving under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. After the war Grant served at various posts especially in the Pacific Northwest; he was forced to retire from the service in 1854 due to accusations of drunkenness. He was unable to make a success of farming and on the onset of the Civil War in April 1861, Grant was working as a clerk in his father's leather goods store in Galena, Illinois. When the war began his military experience was needed, and Congressman Elihu B. Washburne became his patron in political affairs and promotions in Illinois and nationwide.
The 11th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment from Illinois that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. In April 1861, it was formed as a three-month volunteer unit, and in July 1861 it was reorganized as a three-year unit, in which role it served until the end of the war. Two of its commanding officers were promoted to brigadier general and led major units during the war. In its first major action at Fort Donelson the regiment suffered terrible losses. The 11th Illinois also fought at Shiloh, Riggins Hill, Vicksburg, First Yazoo City, Second Yazoo City, and Fort Blakely. In April 1863, the 109th Illinois Infantry Regiment was disbanded and its enlisted men transferred into the 11th Illinois. The regiment was mustered out of service in July 1865.
Friend Smith Rutherford was a colonel in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He commanded the 97th Illinois Infantry Regiment during the Vicksburg campaign. On June 18, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln nominated Rutherford for appointment to the grade of brigadier general of volunteers and the United States Senate confirmed the appointment on June 28, 1864. Rutherford's appointment was dated June 27, 1864 and it was to rank from June 28, 1864. His appointment was made and commission issued without knowledge of his death on June 20, 1864. Since Rutherford had died, the confirmation technically could not be given and the commission could not become effective. Nonetheless, several sources list Rutherford as a Union Army general, although historian Ezra Warner does not.
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