1863
At Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, only a few regiments of the corps were engaged, although all were under severe artillery fire. But the corps was engaged on the same field, May 3, 1863, in an action that made it famous with a brilliant display of dash and daring.
Up to this point, the entire corps had never fought a major engagement as a whole, only pieces of it participating in the battles on the Peninsula and Antietam. Their chance finally came when Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker took the Army of the Potomac to Chancellorsville he left the VI Corps in front of Fredericksburg, which was still held by a strong force of the enemy. Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, who had succeeded to the corps command, ordered an assault on Marye's Heights, and that strong position that had defied the assaults of the previous battle, was now carried by the VI Corps at the point of the bayonet. The divisions of Newton and Howe were the ones engaged together with Col Hiram Burnham's Light Division. Brooks's (1st) Division was engaged later in the day, at Salem Church. The corps lost in this battle 4,589 (485 killed, 2,619 wounded, 1,485 missing). The missing ones were, for the most part, lost in the action at Salem Church. On the day before this battle, the corps returns showed a strength of 23,730, "present for duty", of whom less than 20,000 were present in action. The Light Division was broken up after the battle, its regiments being assigned to other divisions.
In the Gettysburg Campaign, the divisions were commanded by Generals Horatio G. Wright, Howe, and Newton. After setting up camp in Manchester, Maryland on July 1, 1863, they marched upwards of 37 miles in about 17 hours to reach Gettysburg on the afternoon of July 2, 1863. The 1st Division deployed and saw action at Little Round Top and the Wheatfield. Despite being the largest corps in the Union army at the time (16,000 men), the VI Corps was mostly held in reserve to the east of Gettysburg. It was not kept together as a unit during the second and third days of the battle, its brigades scattered around to plug holes in the line. One brigade held the extreme left of the army on Culp's Hill and the other held the extreme right around Little Round Top.
On July 2, Brig. Gen. Alexander Shaler's Brigade was sent into action as a support to the XII Corps on the right flank; several casualties also occurred in Brig. Gens. Henry L. Eustis's and Frank Wheaton's Brigades, of Newton's Division on the left. Wheaton's brigade helped stabilize that flank late in the day. (Newton left the corps, being assigned to command the I Corps, following the death of John F. Reynolds on the first day of the battle. Wheaton commanded third division for the rest of the battle.)
During the pursuit of Robert E. Lee's army after Gettysburg, the Vermont Brigade was engaged at Funkstown, Maryland, where this one brigade, drawn out in a skirmish line of over a mile in length, alone and unassisted, repelled a determined attack of a vastly superior force, which in massed columns charged this skirmish line repeatedly. The Vermonters sustained but slight loss, as they occupied a strong, natural position.
Having returned to Virginia, the corps participated in the Bristoe Campaign. On November 7, 1863, at Rappahannock Station, it launched a successful assault on the enemy's entrenchments. The 6th Maine and 5th Wisconsin distinguished themselves particularly in this action, leading the storming party and carrying the works with the bayonet only. It was a success that resulted not only in a victory, but in the capture of a large number of prisoners, small arms, artillery and battle flags from the division of MG Jubal Early.
In the Mine Run Campaign the divisions were commanded by Generals Wright, Howe, and Henry D. Terry, but were not in action to any extent. The corps went into winter quarters at Brandy Station.
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