The regiment counted 1,094 officers and enlisted men who were recruited from the following northeast Texas counties: Cass, Cherokee, Harrison, Hunt, Kaufman, Marion, Rusk, San Augustine, Shelby, Smith, Upshur, and Wood.

By 1 August the column reached Fort Smith, Arkansas, where Good's Battery was left behind to refit, while the cavalry continued on to join Benjamin McCulloch's force.

Sigel's force surprised the troops of Greer, J. P. Major, and Thomas James Churchill and drove them from their camps.

[6] Early in the battle, the DeRosey Carroll's 1st Arkansas Cavalry and Greer's troopers charged James Totten's Union battery but were repulsed.

[6] Most of the tribes in Indian Territory joined the Confederacy, while other Native Americans chose to remain loyal to the Union.

[2] After failing to stop Opothleyahola's band, Cooper asked for help and James M. McIntosh led 1,380 Texas horsemen to defeat the Union Indians at Chustenahlah.

Confederate Indians led by Stand Watie arrived after the battle and launched a pursuit that killed 700 of Opothleyahola's fleeing band.

[9] At the Battle of Pea Ridge on 7–8 March 1862, the 3rd Texas Cavalry was assigned to McIntosh's Brigade of McCulloch's Division.

[10] As McIntosh advanced east along the Ford Road on the morning of 7 March, the 3rd Texas was in a column of fours on the brigade's right flank.

As the guns killed ten cavalrymen and wounded others, McIntosh ordered a right face which put the 3rd Texas in the front line.

[11] McCulloch deployed his division with the 3rd Texas Cavalry farthest to the east, where the men dismounted and climbed up Little Mountain.

[13] While these events occurred, the third-in-command Louis Hebert led half of his infantry brigade into the woods farther east.

By 4:00 pm Hebert's attack was defeated and the 3rd Texas Cavalry withdrew from Little Mountain and joined the rest of its division.

At that time, he ordered five infantry regiments, four cavalry units, and two batteries to join the other half of Earl Van Dorn's army in Cross Timbers Hollow.

On 19 September 1862, the regiment suffered its worst losses of the war in the Battle of Iuka, with 22 killed, 74 wounded, and 48 captured.

[19] As Colonel Hinchie P. Mabry led the 3rd Texas Cavalry forward, Union riflemen and artillery opened fire at a range of 150 yd (137 m).

[22] At the Second Battle of Corinth on 3–4 October 1862, the 3rd Texas Cavalry (dismounted) was in W. Bruce Colbert's brigade, Hebert's division, Sterling Price's corps.

[27] Green's two right-hand brigades broke through the Union defenses and seized Battery Powell, but sustained heavy losses.

[30] In December 1862, John C. Pemberton appointed Van Dorn the commander of three cavalry brigades and ordered him to wreck Ulysses S. Grant's supply depot at Holly Springs, Mississippi.

[2] On 4 June 1863, a report by W. H. Jackson stated that Whitfield's cavalry brigade counted 123 officers and 1,354 men present for duty in the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 27th Texas.

[2] The regiment suffered heavy casualties during the campaign and the Federals captured their battle flag at Lovejoy's Station in August 1864.

[1] On 18 August 1864, 4,700 Union cavalry under Hugh Judson Kilpatrick set out on a raid to wreck the Macon and Western Railroad.

The raiders drove Ross' troopers out of Jonesborough but heavy rains began, preventing the Union cavalry from burning the railroad ties.

In the ensuing saber charge, the Union cavalry routed Ross' outnumbered troopers and found the battle flag in a captured ambulance.

After the Confederate defeat in the Battle of Nashville on 15–16 December, the 3rd Texas Cavalry was part of the rear guard led by Forrest.