[1][2] Born in Holmes County, Mississippi, he was the son of Thomas Thompson Land, a prominent attorney who also served on the state supreme court.

[4] Land served in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War,[3] first joining Company H Seventh Louisiana Volunteer Infantry and served with his command at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, and in minor engagements the same year.

In 1862 he enlisted in Company A Twenty-eighth Mississippi Cavalry and in 1863 was assigned to Harvey's Scouts, in which he served until badly wounded and honorably discharged in January 1864.

[4] He was elected in 1894 as additional judge of the first judicial district parish of Caddo, and reelected without opposition in 1896 and 1900.

[5] His brother John R. Land, also a Louisiana Supreme Court Justice, was at his side when he died.