 Sam enlisted in Col. Xavier Debray's regiment on September 18, 1861, and served until the end of the American Civil War on the coast of Texas and in Louisiana.He was present at the Battle of Galveston and at the Battle of Pleasant Hill in Louisiana.In the fall of 1892, Sam Ealy Johnson Sr. offered himself as the Populist candidate for Blanco and Gillespie County's seat in the state legislature.