His uncle and aunt were stricken by an infectious outbreak they had picked up in Galveston and died shortly after arriving in Austin, leaving the adolescent George on his own with no immediate ties to his family overseas and no access to money.
Upon the outbreak of the war in 1861, he promptly responded to the call, entering the Confederate service as a private in Colonel Terry's Texas Rangers, and remained in the army until the general surrender of the South.
Among his principal engagements were Forrest's capture of Murfreesboro; the fighting under Wheeler in 1862; the battles of Shiloh, Perryville, Shelbyville, Chickamauga, Marietta, New Hope Church and Decatur.
When the war came to an end he took up life back on the farm near Austin, and in 1866 he was elected sheriff, but he was quickly deposed by the military Reconstructionist authority.
Though not officially a part of the Texas Rangers he worked in close conjunction with them to help tame the vast lawless region and secure safety for the United States border areas that once belonged to Spain and Mexico.