The regiment was sent to eastern Tennessee to guard the bridges on the Bristol-Chattanooga road. They all took up position at the Cumberland Gap, seeing their first real action on March 24, 1862. They later accompanied Edmund Kirby Smith into Kentucky, and on December 30, 1862, Vance commanded the brigade of James E. Rains, after his death, at the Battle of Murfreesboro. There were many casualties in the brigade, with Vance's own horse killed beneath him by a shell. After the battle, Vance had to step down from his post as he contracted typhoid fever, but he was commended for his service by General John P. McCown, which led to Jefferson Davis commissioning him as brigadier general on March 4, 1863.