In June, 1864, Spurling was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the regiment and led troops in combat in Florida later that fall.

During the fall, while serving in Florida, Spurling and a small detachment were ordered to proceed in a different direction than the main expedition and to rejoin later.

By the time they rejoined the expedition, Spurling and his 19 men had captured "15 prisoners, 50 horses, several teams, and a large train of cattle, mules, and contrabands, having been absent 5 days, and accomplished all this without the loss of a man."

[1] The height of his military career occurred at Evergreen, Alabama, when, in 1865, the company of scouts he was commanding captured three confederate soldiers who were attempting to call reinforcements, a feat for which he received a Medal of Honor in 1897.

According to a newspaper at the time: On that day he captured three Johnnie Rebs single handed, wounding two of them and bringing all three into the Union camp.

Spurling also worked for the Department of Justice, as well as the Postal service where he was a post-office inspector in Chicago, Illinois, for five years.

While one newspaper admired this characteristic, some citizens, notably saloon owners, did not appreciate such strict enforcement as it negatively impacted the sale of liquor.

As a result, the city council declined to renew his appointment, causing Mayor Lovell to resign his office out of protest.

Construction on the five-story steel-framed building began in 1891, but work was delayed due to the Homestead Strike at the Carnegie Steel Company.

A year later, an economic depression (the Panic of 1893) and the ensuing failure of many businesses, resulted in a lack of tenants for Spurling's large building.

The project's financial backers foreclosed and Spurling lost much of his wealth, as well as his stake in the Chicago Rawhide Manufacturing company.