Or, Subtitled: “I Will Take Her in My Arms Back to Texas and Make a Fortune for Her”

Several sources provide information about Samuel’s date of birth. Those sources, unfortunately, conflict with each other. When he enrolled for service in the Mexican-American War on 6 March 1847 at Huntsville, Alabama, in Company H of the 13^th Infantry, he gave his age as 23. This information is recorded in the U.S. Army Register of Enlistments, which also notes that he was a farmer born in Lawrence County, Alabama, was 6’1”, had light hair, gray eyes, and a fair complexion.^[1]