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

By command of Major-General John Gibbon.

A. Henry Embler, A. A. A. General.

This corps was largely made up of re-enlisted men, who had served nine months or three years elsewhere. Here is another General Order which speaks for itself:--

Headquarters twenty-Fifth Army Corps, Army of the James, in the field, Va., Feb. 20, 1865. [Orders.] In view of the circumstances under which this Corps was raised and filled, the peculiar claims of its individual members upon the justice and fair dealing of the prejudiced, and the regularity of the troops which deserve those equal rights that have been hitherto denied the majority, the Commanding General has been induced to adopt the Square as the distinctive badge of the Twenty-Fifth Army Corps.

Wherever danger has been found and glory to be won, the heroes who have fought for immortality have been distinguished by some emblem to which every victory added a new lustre. They looked upon their badge with pride, for to it they had given its fame. In the homes of smiling peace it recalled the days of courageous endurance and the hours of deadly strifeand it solaced the moment of death, for it was a symbol of a life of heroism and self-denial. The poets still sing of the “Templar's cross,” the “Crescent” of the Turks, the “Chalice” of the hunted Christian, and the “White plume” of Murat, that crested the wave of valor sweeping resistlessly to victory.

Soldiers! to you is given a chance in this Spring Campaign of making this badge immortal. Let History record that on the banks of the James thirty thousand freemen not only gained their own liberty but shattered the prejudice of the world, and gave to the Land of their birth Peace, Union, and Liberty.

Godfrey Weitzel, [Official.] Major-General Commanding.

W. L. Goodrich, A. A. A. General.

This corps was composed wholly of colored troops.

In the late fall of 1864, Major-General W. S. Hancock resigned his command of the Second Corps to take charge