The 7th Tennessee Cavalry was organized at Jackson, Grand Junction, and Trenton, Tennessee and mustered on August 28, 1862, for a three-year enlistment under the command of Colonel Isaac Roberts Hawkins.
The regiment was attached to District of Jackson, Department of the Tennessee, to November 1862.
District of Jackson, XIII Corps, Department of the Tennessee, to December 1862.
Cavalry Brigade, District of Jackson, XVI Corps, to April 1863.
Ordered to Rockville, on Tennessee River, June 27, and duty there until August.
After repelling four assaults, with a loss of only one killed and two or three wounded, Lieutenant Colonel Hawkins was tricked into an unconditional surrender by Duckworth.
Unknown to Hawkins, a federal force of some 2000 men six miles away were marching to his aid.
Captains John W. Beatty and T. P. Gray were among those surrendered, but escaped a few days later.
Captain Beatty's report stated: "When we found that Colonel Hawkins had made an unconditional surrender, the officers and men cried like a whipped child.