When the US Civil War broke out, he tried to join the Union Army; however, he failed the vision test, due to myopia, and spent the war years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, attending Harvard, and working as an assistant to Benjamin Gould, astronomer and head of the Longitude Department of the United States Coast Survey.

[5] It was while in Cambridge that he rubbed shoulders with scientists from the Nautical Almanac, specifically, William Ferrel, which probably piqued his meteorological curiosity.

It was said that he was his happiest while in Russia as like-minded intellectuals surrounded him, formed a relationship with Otto Struve, and enjoyed the scenery.

He won approval to report on and predict the weather, working on the premise that forecasts could and should be generated at minimal expense and in such a way as to perhaps even produce income.

[3][7] Abbe was appointed chief meteorologist at the United States Weather Bureau on 3 January 1871, which at the time was part of the U.S. Signal Corps.

And so with short-term funding granted from the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, he enlisted twenty volunteer weather observers to help report conditions.

He selected data-collecting instruments that would be critical to the success of weather predicting, and he trained Army observer sergeants in their use.

He was joined in mid-1871 by two Army lieutenants and a civilian professor in giving reports, and the team was then able to rotate the heavy workload.

By 1872, Abbe regularly sent over 500 sets of daily maps and bulletins overseas in exchange for European meteorological data.

By the end of the century, self-registering equipment came into use, and the United States led the meteorological world with 114 Class I (automatic recording) observation stations.

He enlisted Oliver Wolcott Gibbs of Harvard and Arthur Wright of Yale to design improved equipment.

For comparison purposes, Abbe ordered a barometer from Heinrich Wild (director of the Nicholas Central Observatory in Russia), as well as an anemometer and several types of hygrometers from Germany.

Abbe then invented an anemobarometer to test the effect of chimney and window drafts on barometers in enclosed spaces.

[1][8] He was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Cleveland Abbe founded the scientific journal Monthly Weather Review in 1872.

[16] The Monthly Weather Review began as a government publication under the United States Army Signal Corps.

In 1891, the Signal Office's meteorological responsibilities were transferred to the Weather Bureau under the United States Department of Agriculture.