For the four long years of the American Civil War, Sam Barron rode with the famed Third Texas Cavalry under General Lawrence Sullivan Ross (governor of Texas twice and president of Texas A&M). Ross' Brigade, as it was known, was involved in some of the most important and successful Confederate operations of the war. Of special note, Barron describes the raid on Holly Springs that decimated Union supplies there, temporarily threatening Ulysses S. Grant's plans to take Vicksburg, the last Rebel stronghold on the Mississippi. The Third Texans also fought at Corinth, Elkhorn, Oak Hill and elsewhere. Only a Texan for about one year before the war broke out, Barron nevertheless declared himself a secessionist as soon as he heard about John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.