The 63rd OVI was recruited and organized from counties in the southeastern part of the state in October 1861 to serve for three years.
A camp was located at Chillicothe, Ohio, called Camp Worthington, and the work of recruiting for the regiment began in the month of August 1861. Captain William Craig of the U.S. Regular Army obtained authority to recruit a regiment, of which he was to be Colonel, for the three years' service, to be called the Sixty-third Ohio. He located a Camp at Marietta, Ohio, called Camp Tupper, and engaged men about the first of October, 1861 to recruit for several companies of his proposed regiment.
In the latter part of December 1861, Colonel Gilmore at Chillicothe had enough men enlisted to organize four companies. Work at recruiting was still going on but neither of these organizations was completed because of the following:
Early in January 1862 Governor Tod ordered six full companies of the men at Chillicothe recruited for the 22nd Ohio to be transferred to Marietta to join the four companies there. This made a full regiment at Marietta, which he called the 63rd.
The surplus men at Chillicothe over and above the six companies were transferred to Mt. Vernon to join a regiment being recruited there called the 43rd. Governor Tod appointed as Colonel of the 63rd just formed, John W. Sprague who had not assisted in recruiting any part of it, and who was an entire stranger to every member.
Colonel Gilmore of the 22nd was appointed Lieutenant Colonel and Captain Craig of the Regular Army who had recruited the four companies at Marietta dropped out entirely. The companies of the new regiment were given letters according to the respective rank of their Captains, the senior commencing with A. The six companies recruited at Chillicothe were designated A, B, E, H, I and K and the four companies recruited at Marietta were designated C, D, F and G.
The companies were assigned place in line in the regiment according to the letter given each and the rank of its Captain as provided in Army regulations. This order is as follows, commencing on the right, A, F, C, I, C, H, E, K, G and B. The companies of the 63rd maintained this order in line during their four years service.
The original Captains of the Regiment and the localities from which they principally recruited their respective companies are as follows:
63rd OVI Field and Staff
Company A, Captain Nathan Picket
Recruited mostly from the northern part of Athens County, some from adjoining counties.
Company B, Captain Charles E. Brown
Recruited in Ross County.
Company C, Captain Christopher E. Smith
Recruited in Meigs County.
Company D, Captain John W. Fouts
Recruited in Washington, Morgan and Noble Counties.
Company E, Captain Thomas McCord (Follis listed on second page)
Recruited in Ross and Pike Counties.
Company F, Captain Charles H. Titus
Recruited in Washington, Meigs and Noble Counties.
Company G, Captain Rodney K. Shaw
Recruited in Washington, Athens and Morgan Counties.
Company H, Captain Oscar L. Jackson
Recruited about 1/3 each from Hocking and Athens Counties; the other 1/3 from Ross, Vinton, Washington and Morgan Counties.
Company I, Captain James Taggart
Recruited mainly in Ross County, some from adjoining counties.
Company K, Captain Charles W. McGinnis
Recruited mainly in Ross County, some from adjoining counties.
SERVICE: Battle of Iuka, Miss., Battle of Corinth, Atlanta Campaign, Battle of Resaca, battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills, assault on Kennesaw Mountain, Nickajack Creek, Ruff's Mills, Battle of Atlanta, Siege of Atlanta, Battle of Jonesboro, Pursuit of Hood into Alabama, March to the Sea, Siege of Savannah, Battle of Bentonville, NC.
MORE HISTORY
The Sixty-Third Ohio was organized by the consolidation of two battalions of recruits, known as the Twenty-Second and Sixty-Third Regiments Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The Battalion of the Twenty-Second was recruited at Camp Worthington, Chillicothe, Ohio, and furnished for the new organization six companies, A,B,E,H,I, and K. The Battalion of the Sixty-Third was recruited at Mariettta, Ohio.
The consolidation was occasioned by the earnest call of the General Government upon the State authorities for troops, directing that recruits be pushed into the field as rapidly as possible. The order for the consolidation was issued at Columbus, on the 18th of January, 1862, and the organization was completed on the 23d of the same month, the Twenty-Second having been ordered to report to Marietta.
The regiment moved from Marietta on February 18th, under orders to reportat Paducah, Kentucky. From this place it was ordered to join the Army of the Mississippi, which was then being organized at Commerce, Missouri, by Major-General John Pope. The regiment reached Commerce February 23d, and encamped near the town. The army took up the march for New Madrid on the 28th, and reached the town on the 3d of March. The regiment took part reconnoissance on the day of its arrival, and was under fire for the first time. In the permanent organization of the army at New Madrid, the regiment was brigaded with the Twenty-Seventh, Thirty- Ninth and Forty-Third Ohio Regiments, commanded by Brigadier-General David S. Stanley. The organization was known as the Ohio Brigade. The regiment shared in a reconnoissance on the 7th of March, and its services on the 13th were officially recognized in an order from General Pope's head-quarters. The regiment was present in all of the movements which resulted in the surrender of Island No. 10, and on the 12th of April embarked on the transport Silver Wave, and moved with the army to the vicinity of Fort Pillow. Later in the month it was ordered to join Halleck in the seige of Corinth, and landed at Hamburg, Tennessee, on the 23d of April.
The regiment took part in all the operations on the left of Halleck's forces; was in the reconnoissance beyond Farmington on the 8th of May, and in the engagement at Farmington on the 28th of the same month, sustaining severe loss. After the evacuation o Corinth the regiment joined in the pursuit as far as Booneville Station, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and returning to Corinth on the 11th of June, took up quarters on Clear Creek. On the 20th of August the regiment with the brigade, moved first to Iuka and then to Bear Creek. When Price's army advanced toward Iuka, on September 12th, the troops fell back to Clear Creek again, but when Rosecrans advanced to Jacinto the regiment again marched for Iuka on the 19th, and was the reserve at the battle of that name and date. The next day the regiment pursued the Rebels and returning the day after camped at Jacinto.
From the 28th of September till the 3d of October Stanley's division, of which the Sixty-Third was a part, acted as a corps of observation, watching the combined armies of the Rebel Generals Van Dorn, Price and Lovell. The regiment took part in all the movements of the division marching to Rienzi, making a reconnoissance toward Ripley, and marching to Tuscumbia River.