[citation needed] After Fort Sumter, Drake obtained a Captain's commission and operated with a mounted Iowa border regiment patrolling northern Missouri and clearing out small bands of rebels.

Here Drake saw his first combat action as Executive Officer of the 36th, which was almost constantly under artillery fire from the rebel guns at Fort Pemberton, at the confluence of the Tallahatchie and Yazoo Rivers, and during which the 36th Iowa conducted two hazardous long-range reconnaissance-in-force operations to try to locate a dry land route that would enable them to flank the rebel fort, which had been reinforced with large naval cannon.

The regiment suffered 5 wounded from enemy snipers and some half-dozen others died of fevers and were buried at Shellmound, Mississippi adjacent to the Curtis Plantation on the banks of the Tallahatchie River.

The rebel brigades attempted to seize Battery A--one of four huge reinforced redoubts armed with heavy siege guns along the crest of Crowley's Ridge, immediately west of the town of Helena.

In the first half of April 1864 during the Camden Expedition to cooperated with the forces of Major General Nathaniel Banks on the Red River, in Louisiana, Drake was directed by 2nd Brigade / Third Division / VII Army Corps commander William McLean to establish a beachhead on the south bank of the Little Missouri River to enable the rest of the VII Army Corps to cross there and bypass heavy concentrations of the enemy guarding the Military Road river crossing at Antoine, 15 miles upriver in hopes of using this alternate route to outflank the rebel army under overall command of Sterling Price and advance onto Prairie D'Ane.

At first light on April 4, an estimated 2,500 dismounted enemy cavalry belonging to Marmaduke's division attacked Drake's forward position in the Battle of Elkins' Ferry.

In a battle that lasted 7 hours, Drake's small command was steadily driven back toward the Little Missouri but he managed to stop the enemy assault, enabling the remainder of General Frederick Steele's VII Army Corps to cross the river there and advance to a showdown with Major General Sterling Price at the subsequent Battle of Prairie D'Ane, April 10–12.

On April 15, the Union VII Corps advanced into Camden, Arkansas largely unopposed, in search of supplies, and Drake again showed his talent when he was assigned with just 5 companies of the 36th Iowa and two artillery pieces to hold open a critical crossroads ("Camden Crossroads") ten miles west of the city for 5 hours until early evening when the Frontier Division of General John Thayer caught up with Steele's advanced column.

It was considered a high-risk but essential mission, as VII Corps had exhausted its rations and the troops at Camden were surviving on raw ears of corn or cornbread—if they were lucky.

In this desperate fight that ended in hand-to-hand close quarters combat, Drake led a spirited defense and was severely wounded, finally falling from his horse due to lack of blood and was captured, along with the entire brigade, save a handful who managed to escape back to Union lines.

Badly wounded by a Minie ball that struck his hip and broke into three large fragments that traveled into his leg and knee, Drake awoke after the battle to find General James Fagan standing over him.

Fagan also took the chivalrous step of personally paroling Drake and a few other wounded 36th Iowa officers so they could return to Union lines at Little Rock for proper medical treatment.

Meanwhile, some 1200 men of his brigade were captured at Marks' Mills and force-marched to the notorious prison stockade at Camp Ford, Tyler, Texas where they would remain in horrid conditions until late February 1865.

Meanwhile, the prisoners captured at Marks Mills who survived the horrors of Camp Ford were paroled in late February, and after 30 days home leave, reunited with the rest of the regiment (just 238 officers and men organized into three mixed companies) at St. Charles.

Upon Drake's arrival to assume command he enforced discipline and ordered the regiment to begin constructing log barracks for a proper garrison.

[1] Through his daughter Millie, he was a grandfather of Theodora Mary Shonts (1882–1966), who married French Duke Emmanuel d'Albert de Luynes.