Texas State Militia Muster Rolls, RG 401, File 693, Texas State Archives, Austin; Aaron T. Sutton, Prisoner of the Rebels in Texas (Decatur, Indiana: Americana Books, 1978), pp. 97-101, 116-119; Charles Nagel, A Boy's Civil War Story (St. Louis: Eden Publishing House, 1935), pp. 207-216, 227-254; Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, ed. by Eugene Campbell Barker and Ernest William Winkler (Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, 1914), vol. 3, p. 1538; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 482: State of Texas v. Henry Dedrich, Criminal Cause File No. 501: State of Texas v. Joseph Dungen, Minute Book C2, pp. 423, 425; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, pp. 662, 669. Though the cotton freighters avoided the perils of life in the military, their occupation was not without its dangers. According to family tradition, on one of Laake's trips, his caravan was attacked by bandits. One of his companions was killed and he himself was hit in the head with a metal object. The wound left a scar that remained bald for the rest of his life (see Ernest W. Laake, The History and Living Descendants of the Frank Albert Laake Family (n. p., n. d.)).
    On July 25, 1887, twenty-five years after he declared that he was a temporary resident, Meyer, long past the age at which he could be drafted into military service, applied for United States citizenship. He received it on September 30, 1891. He died November 7, 1903, and was buried at Trinity Lutheran Church in Frelsburg, where, undoubtedly, he will remain permanently (see Colorado County Naturalization Records, District Clerk Record Book 1, p. 127, County Clerk Declaration of Intention Book 1, p. 82; Tombstone of Friedrich Meyer, Trinity Lutheran Cemetery).