Frauenthal enlisted in the Confederate States Army as a private in Company A of the 16th Mississippi Infantry Regiment at Summit, Mississippi; one of 1500 Jewish volunteers in the Confederate Army. Although he was officially an army drummer, he often used his musket in battle. Some of the most "terrific and long-sustained fighting" (as described by a private A. T. Watts) was fought at "Bloody Acute Angle" at Spotsylvania, Virginia, on May 12, 1864. For several hours, surrounded by the soldiers from Union Army, Frauenthal fought between the "most terrific hail of lead, and coolly and deliberately loaded and fired without cringing."