By authority of the Major-General commanding the Army of the James, the Heart is adopted as the badge of the Twenty-Fourth Army Corps.
The symbol selected is one which testifies our affectionate regard for all our brave comrades—alike the living and the dead—who have braved the perils of the mighty conflict, and our devotion to the sacred cause—a cause which entitles us to the sympathy of every brave and true heart and the support of every strong and determined hand.
The Major-General commanding the Corps does not doubt that soldiers who have given their strength and blood to the fame of their former badges, will unite in rendering the present one even more renowned than those under which they have heretofore marched to battle.
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 strife—and 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.