[3] She was initially stationed at Mobile, Alabama, with cruising grounds to Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, and Fowey Rocks, Florida.

Tallapoosa left Newport News, Virginia towed by USGCC Apache on 16 July 1915 and arrived at the Coast Guard Depot at Curtis Bay, Maryland, the following day.

[7] In late August, she took the seized German steamship Constantia in tow at Cienfuegos, Cuba and delivered her to the naval station at New Orleans, Louisiana, on 8 September.

After repairs at the Coast Guard Depot, she towed the naval ordnance barge Sargent from the Washington Navy Yard to New London, Connecticut and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

After the armistice was signed ending the war on 11 November, she participated in search and rescue work in the North Atlantic.

[3][7] The cutter was almost crushed by ice during one incident involving the rescue of a group of stranded fishermen near Forteau Harbor.

On 10 December her cruising district was again established as that portion of the coast bordering on the Gulf of Mexico and extending from Port Eads to Tampa, with headquarters still at Mobile, Alabama.

[4] During September 1926 she was part of a task force organized to aid hurricane victims in Florida; her crew helping maintain order, improvising hospitals, and assisting in the search for the missing.

The next few years were spent doing sealing patrols and treaty enforcement in Alaskan waters, with occasional trips to Seattle, Washington, for drydocking and repair.

[12][13] Tallapoosa remained in the 6th Naval District throughout World War II where she engaged in convoy and anti-submarine work.

Beginning in November 1942 Tallapoosa was assigned anti-submarine patrols in the Charleston, South Carolina area and some convoy escort duty.

Proceeding to Jacksonville after three tests, the cutter underwent repairs until 28 February 1943, when she returned to her anti-submarine patrols in the 6th Naval District until the fall of 1945, when she was sent to Curtis Bay, Maryland, for decommissioning.