Assigned primarily to the Quartermaster Corps, Miller specialized in construction and transportation, including development of the cantonment at Fort Sheridan, Illinois.

[3] In September 1862, he enlisted in the Union Army for the American Civil War and joined the 16th Vermont Infantry Regiment.

[4] Miller was discharged from the 16th Vermont Infantry so he could accept appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

[4] From May 1873 to May 1874, Miller was a student at Fort Monroe, Virginia's Artillery School for Practice, after which he returned to duty at the Presidio of San Francisco.

[4] In August 1888, Miller was assigned to oversee construction of the buildings at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, where he served until January 1890.

[4] He was then appointed to head the Constructing Bureau in the office of the Quartermaster General of the United States Army, where he served until January 1898.

[4] In July 1898, Miller resigned his commission in the volunteers and was appointed to command the quartermaster general's Bureau of Regular Supplies and Wagon Transportation with the temporary rank of colonel.

[5] The U.S. Congress had recently passed legislation permitting Civil War veterans on active duty as colonels to retire as brigadier generals.

Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C.[4] In retirement, Miller was a resident of Burlington, Vermont and spent winters with his son in Richmond, Virginia.

[4] He frequently golfed in Burlington with Stephen Perry Jocelyn, also a Civil War veteran and retired brigadier general.