David B. Currie, age 23, enlisted in Captain Eli Toole's Company, Texas Volunteer Infantry on 16 June 1862 in San Antonio. Toole's company was renamed Co. I, 3rd Regiment Texas Infantry under the command of Colonel Philip N. Luckett. In October, 1862 the regiment was assigned to Col. Ford's Western Subdistrict of Texas and its 648 men were scattered from Fort Brown to Laredo guarding the state's Mexican frontier. After actively skirmishing against Mexican bandits and renegade Unionists on the border, the 3rd Texas was sent to Galveston in July 1863 and in 1864 the regiment participated in the bloody Red River Campaign in Arkansas. But private David B. Currie did not accompany his unit eastward; on 12 May 1863 Currie was given a disability discharge from the service by Gen. John B. Magruder.