It was noted as being the regiment that captured the fleeing President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, as the Confederacy collapsed in the spring of 1865.

Park of Ovid, Major William H. Dickinson of Grand Rapids, Major Horace Gray of Grosse Ile,[3] Surgeon George W. Fish of Flint, Assistant Surgeon John H. Bacon of Lansing, Adjutant Joseph W. Huston of Paw Paw, Quartermaster Walter C. Arthur of Detroit, Quartermaster Chauncey C. Douglass of Grand Rapids and Commissary Edwin H. Porter of Kalamazoo.

It saw its first engagement at Stanford Kentucky, fighting the forces of Confederate General John Morgan,[6] attached to the 1st Brigade, Cavalry Division, Army of the Ohio until November 1862.

[7] These units fought at Murfreesboro, Stones River, Shelbyville, Reed's Bridge, Chickamauga, Noonday Creek, Atlanta, Kilpatrick Raid and Selma.

Also involved in the capture of Davis was Corporal John William Bowles of Company M. The 4th was assigned to routine duty at Macon and then at Nashville, Tennessee, until the end of June.