First Army Corps (Spanish-American War)

First Army Corps
Active	May 7, 1898 – January 16, 1899
Country	United States
Branch	Regular Army
Type	Corps
Engagements	Spanish–American War

The First Army Corps was a unit of the United States Army raised for the Spanish–American War.

As relations between Spain and the United States deteriorated in the spring of 1898, the leaders of the U.S. Army began to plan for its first large-scale campaign since the Civil War, which had ended more than 30 years previously. On April 15, 1898, the regiments of the Regular Army were ordered to various assembly points in the South, with only a handful of units to remain at their peacetime posts. The troops assembling at Camp Thomas, Georgia (in the Chickamauga Battlefield Park) were formed into a provisional field corps on April 23 under the command of Major General John R. Brooke.

After the declaration of war, General Order 36 of May 7 approved the organization of eight "army corps," each of which was to consist of three or more divisions of three brigades each. Each brigade was to have approximately 3,600 officers and enlisted men organized into three regiments and, with three such brigades, each division was to total about 11,000 officers and men. Thus the division was to be about the same size as the division of 1861, but army corps were to be larger. The division staff initially was to have an adjutant general, quartermaster, commissary, surgeon, inspector general and engineer, with an ordnance officer added later. The brigade staff was identical except that no inspector general or ordnance officer was authorized.

General Order 46 of May 16, 1898 assigned commanding officers and training camps to the new corps. Major General Brooke was named as commander of First Army Corps, which was to assemble at Camp Thomas, Georgia.

In July 1898, First Division of the First Army Corps (division numbers were not unique in this era) was assigned to the Puerto Rico expedition. On July 23, General Brooke was relieved by Major General James F. Wade, who in turn relinquished command to Brigadier General Royal T. Frank; on August 2, General Frank relinquished command to Major General Joseph C. Breckinridge. (Many accounts claim that First Corps led the invasion of Puerto Rico (as the Fifth had done at Santiago), but the troops under Brooke were the only element of the corps to take part in the expedition, which was headed by the Army's commanding general, Nelson A. Miles and included troops led by generals Guy Vernon Henry and Theodore Schwan who commanded the First Divisions of the Fourth and Seventh corps.)

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