In 1833 he moved to Upper Alton, Illinois, where he served as a preacher and helped get Shurtleff College off the ground and running.

In 1844, at the age of seventeen, he clerked at a hardware store and pursued a business life until the outbreak of the Mexican-American War in 1846.

[1] In 1846, Rodgers volunteered to fight in the Mexican–American War and joined Company E of the Second Illinois Regiment under the leadership of Col. William Henry Bissell.

As a captured officer, Rodgers was sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, and spent a year there where he was forced to endure its many horrors, including disease, tight confinement, and malnutrition.

Later he was moved to Macon, Georgia, and then to Charleston along with about fifty other officers where he was used by the rebels as a hostage to prevent Union fire on the city.

[2] After his discharge from the Army, Rodgers returned home to Illinois and focused on farming and his growing family, which eventually included two sons and two daughters.