In Valor Across the Lone Star: The Congressional Medal of Honor in Frontier Texas, author Charles M. Neal Jr. takes us back to the Texas frontier during the years of the Civil War and the Texas Indian Wars. Neal relates in extraordinary detail the exploits of United States soldiers and sailors in battle. Union sail George Bell, although wounded in an assault on the CSS Royal Yacht in Galveston Bay, forced fleeing crew members to return their launch to the ship to rescue other sailors, then guided the launch away from the scene to safety. John Ward reminded fellow Seminole-Negro scouts Pompey Factor and Isaac Payne, "We can't leave the Lieutenant, boys!" and Factor and Payne provided the covering fire necessary for Ward to rescue Lt. John L. Bullis, who had fallen from his horse, when the four-man detachment was outgunned at the Eagle Nest Crossing of the Pecos River.