The corps was organized in April 1863 by order of the departmental commander, Ambrose E. Burnside.

Along with Burnside's old IX Corps, which had been sent west with him after Fredericksburg, it was to maintain a primarily defensive position in Eastern Tennessee and Kentucky.

The Army of the Ohio joined William T. Sherman for the Atlanta Campaign that spring.

Hood's Franklin-Nashville Campaign, and it saw heavy action at the Battle of Franklin, though it was held in reserve at Nashville.

The corps ultimately joined Sherman's army in the Carolinas Campaign, and was disbanded in August 1865.