Collier was active in the Tabb Street Presbyterian Church, including leading its Sunday school as well as four times represented the East Hanover Presbytery at national assemblies.
[2] Following his father's career path, Collier became a lawyer and practiced in his native Petersburg, but soon moved to Shellbanks, which was either a large plantation near Hampton, Virginia owned by former multi-term Elizabeth City County delegate Charles M. Collier who died in 1827,[3] or a plantation in Prince George County, Virginia owned by Edmund Ruffin (known for his advocacy of slavery as well as advanced agricultural practices) and who made his main home in Petersburg since the 1840s, although the postmaster at Shellbanks in the 1830s.
[2] After the Secession Convention voted to secede in April 1861, and Petersburg and other Virginia voters ratified that resolution in May, Collier volunteered as an aide to CSA Major General Walter Gwynn, a U.S. Army engineer turned railroad man who had helped plan the attack at Fort Sumter.
He took his seat August 18, 1862 and served until February 17, 1864, when his pardon application said he resigned, although it also said he ran for re-election and was defeated in a close contest (26 votes) by local Judge Thomas Saunders Gholson.
[16] During this period, his father Robert Ruffin Collier became known for an 1863 speech in the Virginia House of Delegates declaring slavery a Southern cultural institution.
While a Confederate congressman, Collier served on a five-member committee investigating fraud in railroad transportation, and also delivered speeches advocating exemptions from draft laws for coal miners, postal workers and men older than 40.
[2][20] After the war, Collier took the required oath of allegiance on June 28, 1865, then petitioned for a presidential pardon, which (after followup) he received from President Andrew Johnson on February 1, 1867.
The election proved a complete victory for Democrats in the city and Commonwealth, and ended the rule of former CSA General turned Republican political boss and Senator William Mahone).