XI Corps (Union Army)
The XI Corps (Eleventh Army Corps) was a corps of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War, best remembered for its involvement in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in 1863. The corps was composed primarily of German-American regiments.
Not to be confused with XI Corps (United States).XI Corps
Tennessee[edit]
After Gettysburg, George Meade decided to break up the XI Corps. Returning to Virginia after Gettysburg, on August 7, the 1st Division (Alexander Schimmelfennig's and later George Henry Gordon's) was permanently detached, having been ordered to Charleston Harbor. On September 24, the 2nd and 3rd divisions (Steinwehr's and Schurz's) were ordered to Tennessee, together with the XII Corps under the command of Former Army of the Potomac commander Joseph Hooker. These two corps, numbering over 20,000 men, were transported, within a week, over 1,200 miles, and placed on the banks of the Tennessee River, at Bridgeport, without an accident or detention.
During the following month, on October 29, Howard's two divisions were ordered to support the XII Corps at the Battle of Wauhatchie, opening the supply lines to the besieged city of Chattanooga. Arriving there, Col. Orland Smith's Brigade of von Steinwehr's Division charged up a steep hill in the face of the enemy, receiving but not returning the fire, and drove James Longstreet's veterans out of their entrenchments, using the bayonet alone. Some of the regiments in this affair suffered a severe loss. Still, their extraordinary gallantry won extravagant expressions of praise from various generals high in rank, including General Ulysses S. Grant. A part of the XI Corps was also actively engaged at Missionary Ridge, where it cooperated with William T. Sherman's forces on the left. After this battle, it was ordered to East Tennessee for the relief of Knoxville, a campaign whose hardships and privations exceeded anything within the previous experience of the command.
In April 1864, the two divisions of the XI Corps were broken up and transferred to the newly formed XX Corps, which was put under Hooker's Command. General Howard was assigned to the command of the IV Corps and was promoted to the command of the Army of the Tennessee when James B. McPherson was killed at the Battle of Atlanta. Hooker was enraged by Howard's promotion (because he thought he deserved it himself and never forgave Howard for what happened at Chancellorsville) and resigned in protest. Hooker was replaced by Henry Slocum.