[1] The companies of the regiment, drawn from across the state, enlisted for twelve months of service and had been sent to Pensacola to participate in the blockade of the Union-held Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island.

[6] Like many volunteer regiments, its officers lacked professional military experience: Wood had been a lawyer,[7] Coltart an insurance agent,[8] and Russell a doctor.

[10][11] At Pensacola, the regiment settled into a routine of guard duty, drilling and building fortifications with the men finding relaxation in "loafing" around the town.

In response, Bragg launched a 1,000-man retaliatory sortie against the Union troops on Santa Rosa Island under the command of Brigadier General Richard H. Anderson.

The 7th Alabama contributed three companies, the Lafayette Guards, Madison Rifles, and Louisville Blues,[17][18] to the force, which formed part of Colonel James Patton Anderson's ad-hoc 400-man 2nd Battalion together with units from the 1st Florida Infantry and 1st Louisiana Regulars in the ensuing Battle of Santa Rosa Island.

Patton Anderson's battalion landed from a steamer on the night of October 8–9 along with the rest of the force on a beach four miles east of Fort Pickens.

[19] When a Union picket gave the alarm on the morning of October 9, the 6th New York was alerted, but their camp was captured by John K. Jackson's troops as its occupants hastily departed.

[19] The Confederates were able to halt the Union troops responding from Fort Pickens and burned the camp before boarding the steamer back to Pensacola.

In the mountains near Chattanooga, local Confederate commander Brigadier General William Henry Carroll threatened an advance on a Unionist camp, forcing them to disperse.

The Cherokee Grays and Dale Guards were sent to capture Unionist leader William D. Clift at his home but were unsuccessful, settling for looting the residence.

Many of the latter were released upon taking the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, and the Carroll considered the uprising suppressed by late December when he lifted martial law in the region.

The fourth Ala Regt has not been in service as long as we have yet upon the glory field of Manassas immortalized its self while the 7th has been laboring and toiling in the sands of Floriday suffering with disease and death but yet we get no praise only for gentlemany conduct towards the inhabitants of that part of the country through which we have traveled...it seems that hard luck will be our portion the ballance of our time..but yet I do not despair of having an opportunity of meeting the enemy in the battle field before our time is entirely out.

While the regiment was at Tyners Station, Bragg issued a general order calling out its company commanders for abandoning their sick in camp when they left for Chattanooga.

[28] With the Unionist revolt dying down, the 7th Alabama departed Chattanooga by train on December 16 to join the Confederate Army of Central Kentucky at Bowling Green.

[30] After the fall of Fort Donelson on February 16, the Tennessee River was opened up for a Union advance against the critical rail junction of the Memphis and Charleston and the Mobile and Ohio Railroads at Corinth, Mississippi.