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{{Short description|American Civil War military reserve organization}}(File:Men Wanted for the Invalid Corps notice, 1863.jpg|thumb|Men Wanted for the Invalid Corps notice, 1863)(File:Band of the 10th Veteran Reserve Corps. Washington, D.C. April, 1865.jpg|thumb|right|10th VRC band in Washington, 1865)The Veteran Reserve Corps (originally the Invalid Corps) was a military reserve organization created within the Union Army during the American Civil War to allow partially disabled or otherwise infirm soldiers (or former soldiers) to perform light duty, freeing non-disabled soldiers to serve on the front lines.

The Invalid Corps

The corps was organized under authority of General Order No. 105, U.S. War Department, dated April 28, 1863.Invalid Corps, Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War A similar corps had existed in Revolutionary times between 1777 and 1783.Rostker, Bernard. Providing for the casualties of war: the American experience through World War II. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2013, pp. 63-64 The Invalid Corps of the Civil War period was created to make suitable use in a military or semi-military capacity of soldiers who had been rendered unfit for active field service on account of wounds or disease contracted in line of duty, but who were still fit for garrison or other light duty, and were, in the opinion of their commanding officers, meritorious and deserving."Honorable Scars – Life and Limb: The Toll of the American Civil War", National Institute of Health

Qualifications

Those serving in the Invalid Corps were divided into two classes:

• Class 1, partially disabled soldiers whose periods of service had not yet expired, and who were transferred directly to the Corps, there to complete their terms of enlistment;
• Class 2, soldiers who had been discharged from the service on account of wounds, disease, or other disabilities, but who were yet able to perform light military duty and desired to do so.

As the war went on, it proved that the additions to the Corps hardly equaled the losses by discharge or otherwise, so it was finally ordered that the men who had had two years of honorable service in the Union Army or Marine Corps might enlist in the Invalid Corps without regard to disability.War Department. Provost Marshal General's Bureau. Invalid Corps. 4/28/1863-3/18/1864 Organization Authority Record, National ArchivesThe soldiers shown in the rosters of the 15th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment (where they originally enlisted) and who then transferred to the V. R. C. belong to Class 1.Massachusetts Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines in the Civil War, Compiled and published by The Adjutant General in accordance with Chapter 475, Acts of 1899 and Chapter 64, Resolves of 1930, Vol. VII, Norwood Press, 1931.

The Veteran Reserve Corps

The title "Veteran Reserve Corps" was substituted for that of "Invalid Corps" by General Order No. 111, dated March 18, 1864, to boost the morale as the same initials "I.C." were stamped on condemned property meaning, "Inspected-Condemned".Veteran Reserve Corps (VRC), 1863–1865, National Archives The men serving in the Veteran Reserve Corps were organized into two battalions; the First Battalion including those whose disabilities were comparatively slight and who were still able to handle a musket and do some marching, also to perform guard or provost duty. The Second Battalion was made up of men whose disabilities were more serious, who had perhaps lost limbs or suffered some other grave injury. These latter were commonly employed as cooks, orderlies, nurses, or guards in public buildings.Lande, R. Gregory. Invalid Corps, Military Medicine, Vol. 173, no. 6, 2008, pp. 525-528.From "Invalid Corps" to full active duty: America's disabled soldiers return to war, Smithsonian

Uniforms

(File:Private William Liming of Co. B, 21st U.S. Veteran Reserve Corps Infantry Regiment, and unidentified soldier in same uniform (cropped).jpg|thumb|Private William Liming of Co. B, 21st U.S. Veteran Reserve Corps Infantry Regiment, and unidentified soldier)Invalid Corps members stood out because of their unique uniforms.A study of Enlisted Invalid Corps jackets, 1863-1866, by Christopher J. Daley. According to General Orders No. 124, issued May 15, 1863,{{blockquote|The following uniform has been adopted for the Invalid Corps: Jacket: Of sky-blue kersey, with dark-blue trimmings, cut like the jacket of the U.S. Cavalry, to come well down on the loins and abdomen. Trousers: Present regulation, sky-blue. Forage cap: Present regulation.Circular of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau for 1863, 1864, 1865 By United States. Office of the Provost Marshal}} The uniform was trimmed in dark blue, with chevrons of rank and the background of officer's shoulder insignia having that color as a backing.Invalid Corps troops also wore standard dark blue fatigue blouses from time to time. Standard forage caps were to be decorated with the brass infantry horn, regimental number, and company letter.Officers also wore sky blue; a frock coat of sky-blue cloth, with dark blue velvet collar and cuffs, in all other respects according to the present pattern for officers of infantry. Shoulder straps were also to match current patterns but dark-blue velvet. Officers also wore gold epaulets on parade. Eventually officers were allowed to wear the standard dark-blue frock, ostensibly because sky-blue frocks soiled easily. Some officers had their frocks cut down to make uniforms or shell jackets. By the war's end, however, the army was still making sky-blue officers' frocks.

Organization

There were twenty-four regiments in the Corps.Veteran Reserve Corps Civil War Union Units, 1st through 24th These regiments were organized into one division and three brigades.BOOK, Civil War Battle Flags of the Union Army and Order of Battle, Steven J. Wright, Knickerbocker Press, 1997, 1887, 1577150074, Original title: Flags of the United States Army Carried During the War of Rebellion, 1861 & 1863 and Tabular Statements Showing Names of Commanders of Army Corps, Divisions and Brigades of the United States Army, 1861–1865. In the beginning, each regiment was made up of six companies of the First Battalion and four of the Second Battalion, but in the latter part of the war, this method of organization was not strictly adhered to. The 18th Regiment, for example, which rendered exceptionally good service in Virginia at Belle Plain, Port Royal, and White House Landing in the spring and early summer of 1864, and in or near Washington DC in the latter part of the summer and through the fall of that year, was made up of only six Second Battalion companies.There were from two to three times as many men in the First Battalion as in the Second, and the soldiers in the First Battalion performed a wide variety of duties. They furnished guards for the Union prison camps at Johnson's Island, Ohio, Elmira, New York, Point Lookout, Maryland, and elsewhere. They furnished details to the provost marshals to arrest bounty jumpers and to enforce the draft. They escorted substitutes, recruits, and prisoners to and from the front. They guarded railroads, did patrol duty in Washington DC, and even manned the defenses of the city during Jubal Early's raid against Fort Stevens in July 1864.During the war, more than 60,000 men served in the Corps in the Union army;Wagner, Margaret E., Gary W. Gallagher, and Paul Finkelman. The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002, pp. 441-442. 1,700 soldiers during the service in the Federal Veteran Reserve Corps, of whom 24 died in action. Several thousand also served in a Confederate counterpart, the Southern Invalid Corps, although it was never officially organized into actual battalions.Four members from Company F of the Fourteenth Veteran Reserves conducted the execution of the four conspirators linked to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on July 7, 1865, at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. They knocked out the post that released the platform that hanged Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt.The Federal corps was mostly disbanded in 1866 following the close of the Civil War and the lessening of a need for reserve troops. The reorganization of the Regular Army in July 1866 provided for four regiments of the Veteran Reserve Corps. The Veteran Reserve Corps completely ceased to exist when these regiments were consolidated with other regiments in the Army's next re-organization in March 1869.Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, 1789–1903. Francis B. Heitman. 1903. Vol. II. pp. 602–609.

See also

• The Invalid Corps, a humorous song written about the Veteran Reserve Corps
• United States Guards
• Corps of Invalids (Great Britain)

References

{{reflist}}

Further reading

• Pelka, Fred . weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20050308071505weblink">The Civil War Letters of Charles F. Johnson, Invalid Corps. Amherst and Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004. {{ISBN|1-55849-460-X}}.
• Lande, R. Gregory. Invalid Corps, Military Medicine, Vol. 173, no. 6, 2008, pp. 525–528.
• "Invalid Corps/Veteran Reserve Corps" in Wagner, Margaret E., Gary W. Gallagher, and Paul Finkelman. The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002, pp. 441–442.

External links

• The Civil War Archive – Union Regimental Index – U.S.V.R.C.
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20060712032917weblink">The 9th Regiment Invalid Corps – Civil War reenactors
• The 8th Regiment Veteran Reserve Corps – Civil War reenactors

{{Union Army Formations}}{{American Civil War}}{{commons category|Veteran Reserve Corps}}