Several of the enlistees were former Confederate soldiers who had left Southern service either via desertion or capture by Union forces.

The Union expedition skirmished with Confederate forces in the Port Gibson area before returning to Memphis later that month.

[1] Lt. Col. Shorey, commanding the battalion, was wounded in a skirmish near Rocky Springs, Mississippi, captured, and exchanged.

[5] In August 1864, the battalion along with other Union units led by Colonel Joseph Kargé was sent to Oxford, Mississippi and later Holly Springs to oppose General Forrest's cavalry, returning to Memphis the same month.

Later that month the battalion participated in its last action, an excursion into Arkansas and Northeast Louisiana led by Colonel Embury D. Osband.