John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life

The arms of the Fifth Corps badge are often figured as concave, whereas those of a Maltese cross are straight. This is believed to be a deviation from the original in the minds of many veterans who wore them, and they are changed accordingly in the color-plate.

The Sixth Corps wore a St. Andrew's cross till 1864, when it changed to the Greek cross figured in the plate.

That this circular of Hooker's was not intended to be a dead letter was shown in an order issued from Fal mouth, Va., May 12, 1863, in which

St. Andrew's cross.

“The badges worn by the troops when lost or torn off must be immediately replaced.”

And then, after designating the only troops that are without badges, he adds:--

“Provost-marshals will arrest as stragglers all other troops found without badges, and return them to their commands under guard.”

There was a badge worn by the artillery brigade of the Third Corps, which, so far as I know, had no counterpart in other corps. I think it was not adopted until after Gettysburg. It was the lozenge of the corps subdivided into four smaller lozenges, on the following basis: If a battery was attached to the first division, two of these smaller lozenges were red, one white, and one blue; if to the second, two were white, one red, and one blue; and if to the third, two were blue, one red, and one white. They were worn on the left side of the cap.

The original Fourth Corps, organized by McClellan, did not adopt a badge, but its successor of the same number wore an equilateral triangle prescribed by Major-General Thomas, April 26, 1864, in General Orders No. 62, Department of the Cumberland, in which he used much the same