Samuel Adams Drake was born in Boston on December 20, 1833, a son of Samuel Gardner Drake.

He went to Kansas in 1858 as telegraphic agent of the New York Associated Press, became the regular correspondent of the St. Louis Republican and the Louisville Journal, and for a while edited the Leavenworth Times.

In 1861 he joined the state militia and served throughout the American Civil War, becoming brigadier general of militia in 1863.

[1] In 1864, he was colonel of the 17th Kansas Volunteers, commanding the post of Paola, Kansas, during Price's invasion of Missouri in that year.

He returned to Boston in 1871 and resumed literary work.