The regiment was captured at the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. Of the 312 men engaged in the battle, 99 were killed or wounded. Burnett had joined the regiment prior to the battle, again not commanding, but escaped capture by leaving on a river boat with Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd's command. Burnett then resigned from the army to serve full-time as a Confederate senator for Kentucky. After being exchanged in September 1862, the regiment was attached first to Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman's Brigade, and then to Brig. Gen. Abraham Buford's Brigade in the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana.