The corps was first organized on 20 June 1918, during World War I as part of the American Expeditionary Forces.

Under Major General Charles H. Muir serving on the Western Front, as Headquarters IV Army Corps.

[1] The IV Corps was reconstituted in the Organized Reserve in 1921, allotted to the Fourth Corps Area, assigned to the Second United States Army, and activated with a headquarters composed of Regular Army and Organized Reserve personnel at Atlanta, Georgia, on 1 March 1922.

The corps headquarters was fully activated on 20 October 1939, less Reserve personnel, at Fort Benning, Georgia.

In the autumn and winter of 1944, the IV Corps formed the central wing of the Fifth Army's sector, taking the major role in the Fifth Army's assault on the Gothic Line in the central Apennine Mountains, fighting to break through to the Lombardy plains beyond.