He attended the University of Pennsylvania for two years before entering the United States Military Academy in June 1900.

[2] Another brother, John Russell Young Blakely, was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and later an admiral.

[3][4] Blakely was an artilleryman, and was promoted to brigadier general on October 1, 1918, commanding an artillery brigade in France.

From 1934 to 1937, Blakely was assistant commandant of the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

[2] Blakely died at his home in Louisville, Kentucky at the age of ninety-four on January 11, 1975.