Their first action was a skirmish with the sheriff of Tyler County, West Virginia; the regiment was to hunt down and arrest him, as he was a Confederate sympathizer.

The 7th fought in the 1862 Valley Campaign in Nathaniel Banks' V Corps, seeing action in a number of small engagements before fighting in the Battle of Port Republic in late May.

Following the battle, the regiment helped garrison Harper's Ferry until the end of October, when it marched through the Loudoun Valley to Falmouth, Virginia.

In June, the regiment marched northward into Pennsylvania during the Gettysburg Campaign and took a defensive position on Cemetery Ridge on July 2.

[4] In February 1864, the 7th was engaged in fighting at Morton's Ford, and then took part in the Overland Campaign, including the Battle of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, where it was involved in the attack on the Salient or "Bloody Angle."