 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(December 2013) |
| XVI Corps | |
|---|---|
 XVI Corps badge | |
| Active | 1862–1865 |
| Type | Army Corps |
| Size | Corps |
| Engagements | American Civil War |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Grenville Dodge Andrew Jackson Smith |
| Insignia | |
| 1st Division |  |
| 2nd Division |  |
| 3rd Division |  |
The XVI Army Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The corps rarely fought as a single unit, as its divisions were often scattered across the country. [1]
The XVI Corps was organized on December 18, 1862, with Maj. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut in command. It had four divisions commanded respectively by William Sooy Smith (1st Division), Grenville Dodge (2nd Division), Nathan Kimball (3rd Division) and Jacob G. Lauman (4th Division). These divisions were assigned to garrison duty in the vicinity of Memphis, Tennessee, LaGrange, Tennessee and Corinth, Mississippi. [1] With the Army of the Tennessee besieging Vicksburg, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant gathered reinforcements from the surrounding areas. The divisions of Smith, Kimball and Lauman were ordered to Vicksburg on June 12. This detachment was led by Maj. Gen. Cadwallader C. Washburn. Hurlbut and Dodge remained on garrison duty in Tennessee during this time. After the fall of Vicksburg, Smith's division was attached to the IX Corps and Lauman's division was attached to the XIII Corps during Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's expedition to Jackson, Mississippi.
In 1864, the corps was divided into two wings of two divisions each.
The Left Wing was led by Maj. Gen. Grenville Dodge and participated in Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. The left wing was composed of the divisions of Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Sweeny (2nd Division) and Brig. Gen. James C. Veatch (4th Division). These divisions fought notably at the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864, holding off Confederate General John Bell Hood's flank attack. At this battle Veatch's division was led by Brig. Gen. John W. Fuller. General Dodge was struck in the head inspecting siege works outside Atlanta and Brig. Gen. Thomas E. G. Ransom was transferred from XVI Corps garrison duty at Corinth, Mississippi to take command of the Left Wing. Under Ransom were the divisions led by John M. Corse (after Sweeney's court-martial) and Fuller which were significantly engaged at the Battle of Jonesborough. The Left Wing was discontinued September 23, 1864. Fuller's Division became the First Division, XVII Corps and Corse's became Fourth Division, XV Corps.
The remaining division which did not join Sherman's Atlanta Campaign were left to guard the Mississippi River valley. Kimball's, Lauman's and William Sooy Smith's divisions were permanently removed to other corps while James Tuttle's division of the XV Corps and Andrew Jackson Smith's division of the XIII Corps were both transferred to the XVI Corps. Maj. Gen. Hurlbut assumed direct command over these divisions known as the Right Wing and participated in the Meridian Expedition in February 1864. During the Red River Campaign the Right Wing was attached to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks' Army of the Gulf with Andrew J. Smith in command. Tuttle's 1st Division was now commanded by Joseph A. Mower and A.J. Smith's division was also attached to Mower's command. One division from the XVII Corps was attached to the Right Wing. This division was dubbed the "Red River Division" and was commanded by Thomas Kilby Smith.
The Red River Division remained in Louisiana while A.J. Smith took the rest of the Right Wing into Mississippi to protect Sherman's supply lines during the Atlanta Campaign, defeating the Confederates at the Battle of Tupelo. Here the two divisions were commanded by Mower (1st Division) and Colonel David Moore (2nd Division) with a division of cavalry temporarily attached under Brig. Gen. Benjamin Grierson.
This unit was sometimes called "General A.J. Smith's Guerrillas". [2]
The corps in its entirety was discontinued on November 7, 1864. [1] Andrew J. Smith remained in command of his two divisions and were sent to Missouri to help defeat Sterling Prices's Missouri Raid. During this time Smith's command, once known as the Right Wing-XVI Corps, was now officially titled "Detachment-Army of the Tennessee". Smith was then sent to Tennessee to join with Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas for the battle of Nashville. At Nashville Smith had three divisions being commanded respectively by John McArthur, Kenner Garrard and Col. Jonathan B. Moore. McArthur's division took a prominent part in both days of the battle.
On February 18, 1865, Smith's Detachment-Army of the Tennessee became the official XVI Corps. It was composed of three divisions: First (McArthur), Second (Garrard) and Third (Carr). The composition remained virtually the same as it had at Nashville except Brig. Gen. Eugene A. Carr replaced Col. Moore in command of the 3rd Division. It served in the operations of Maj. Gen. Edward Canby against Mobile, Alabama and fought in the battles of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley. The latter ended on April 9, 1865, the day Lee surrendered at Appomattox. The corps was finally disbanded on July 20, 1865.
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 Major General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate Army of Mississippi, led by Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, leading to the successful siege and Confederate surrender.
The Army of the Tennessee was a Union army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, named for the Tennessee River. A 2005 study of the army states that it "was present at most of the great battles that became turning points of the war—Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Atlanta" and "won the decisive battles in the decisive theater of the war."
The Battle of Nashville was a two-day battle in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign that represented the end of large-scale fighting west of the coastal states in the American Civil War. It was fought at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 15–16, 1864, between the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Lieutenant General John Bell Hood and the Union Army of the Cumberland (AoC) under Major General George H. Thomas. In one of the largest victories achieved by the Union Army during the war, Thomas attacked and routed Hood's army, largely destroying it as an effective fighting force.
The Army of the Cumberland was one of the principal Union armies in the Western Theater during the American Civil War. It was originally known as the Army of the Ohio.
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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.
Andrew Jackson Smith was a United States Army general during the American Civil War, rising to the command of a corps. He was most noted for his victory over Confederate General Stephen D. Lee at the Battle of Tupelo, Mississippi, on July 14, 1864.
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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 Battle of Tupelo, also known as the Battle of Harrisburg, was a battle of the American Civil War fought July 14–15, 1864, near Tupelo, Mississippi. The Union victory over Confederate forces in north Mississippi ensured the safety of Sherman's supply lines during the Atlanta Campaign.
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The Battle of Fort DeRussy was the first engagement in the Red River Campaign of March–May 1864 in the American Civil War.
William Sooy Smith was a West Point graduate and career civil engineer who became a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
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