[1] He attended the Charlotte Hall Military Academy in St. Mary's County, Maryland for his formal education, and graduated from Princeton College with a bachelor's degree in June 1851.

In 1865, Compton was arrested and imprisoned at the Old Capitol under suspicion of aiding and abetting John Wilkes Booth after the Lincoln Assassination, but the information was proven false and he was released after four days.

A committee was appointed to investigate voter fraud and ruled in favor of Mudd.

[1] Compton was later elected to the Fifty-second and Fifty-third United States Congress and served from March 4, 1891, until his resignation, effective May 15, 1894 when he was then appointed by President Grover Cleveland as Naval Officer of the Port of Baltimore, a post in which he served from 1894 to 1898.

He also sat on the board of trustees for the Charlotte Hall Military Academy, the School Commission of Charles County, and the Maryland Hospital for the Insane.