In July 1863 after the Battle of Gettysburg Colonel Stephen McGroarty and other members of the 61st returned to Ohio to fill their depleted ranks. While travelling to Columbus the party reached Bellaire, Ohio at the same time a train arrived with captured members of General John Hunt Morgan’s command, including General Morgan. They had been captured in Columbiana County following their raid through Indiana and Ohio. On August 7, 1863 the Delaware Gazette published the following about a conversation between Colonel McGroarty and General Morgan:
The Ohio State Journal says that while John Morgan was on his way from Steubenville to Columbus, Col. McGroarty of the 61st O.V.I. had an extended conversation with him, in which Morgan says that his instructions required him to pass through Indiana and Ohio, and to meet Lee in Pennsylvania, where it was anticipated by the rebels they would be victorious. But Lee being defeated, Morgan concluded to get out of Ohio as soon as he could. Within the last few days he does not seem to have made much progress in the matter. He distinctly acknowledged to Col. McGroarty that owing to the defeat of Lee – the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the Southern Confederacy had gone up.
Whether or not Morgan truly believed the Confederacy was finished, he would continue to fight for it, escaping from the Ohio Penitentiary later that year and returning to confederate service. Morgan was killed during a federal raid at Greeneville, Tennessee on September 4, 1864.
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