In 1859, he began attending Brown University in Providence, but left in the middle of his second year to join the 3rd Rhode Island Heavy Artillery in the Union Army of the American Civil War.

[2] Brayton was commissioned a captain in the 17th Infantry Regiment of the Regular Army in March 1867 and resigned in July of the same year.

He served in a number of political appointments before returning to Warwick to fill the office of Township Clerk, a position that had also been held by his father.

The law, which became known as the Brayton Act, granted almost all appointment powers to the State Senate and limited the Governor to naming his own private secretary and a small handful of minor official positions.

"[4] Brayton operated out of the Rhode Island State House office of High Sheriff of Providence County, Hunter C. White.

Brayton failed to install Samuel P. Colt in the United States Senate; incumbent Republican George P. Wetmore ultimately held his seat against fellow Republican Colt and Democrat Robert Hale Ives Goddard, although the protracted struggle left an empty seat in Rhode Island's delegation to the 60th Congress from March 1907 to January 1908.

[8] General Brayton was a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and the Society of Colonial Wars.

Brayton died in Providence on September 23, 1910, from diabetes and complications of a broken hip sustained in a fall.