It consisted initially of three divisions, under Darius N. Couch, Silas Casey, and William F. "Baldy" Smith.

Couch's division was transferred to join VI Corps during the Antietam Campaign and remained with them for the duration of the war.

The corps took part in George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign of 1862, playing a major role in repulsing Confederate attacks at Seven Pines and Malvern Hill.

Hood's Franklin-Nashville Campaign, General William T. Sherman left the IV (and XXIII Corps), under the overall command of General George H. Thomas, to defend Tennessee, and the corps was heavily engaged in the battles at Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville.

A third[3] reports that after the war it was sent to Texas as part of the U.S. Army detachment dispatched to persuade French Emperor Napoleon III to withdraw his troops from Mexico, and was not disbanded until December 1865.