For fifteen years he was a professor at the United States Military Academy, and after his resignation from the army he worked as a consulting engineer while holding academic appointments at various colleges and universities.

[2] Although his early education was ordinary, being primarily taught by his mother, he developed a passion for technology under the influence of observation of the local industry.

He distinguished himself in the war, participating in the Battle of Lundy's Lane, and receiving a citation and field promotion to First Lieutenant for gallantry at the Siege of Fort Erie.

His orders read: You are assigned to accompany a party to be employed in exploring the Southern Coasts and Shores of Lake Superior in the course of the ensuing summer under the direction of Governor Cass of Michigan Territory.... You will join him at Detroit by the first of May at the farthest and when your services will be no longer required by him you will return to West Point, N.Y. and report by letter thence to this Department.

However, the death of his father-in-law and obligations to his new position as Chair of the Department of Mathematics (including teaching himself French in order to read the most current texts available on calculus) led to personal delays, and in what was an acrimonious split from his colleague, Schoolcraft scooped him and published his own account.

The boat, with two hundred persons on board, rose majestically out of the water; in one minute it was upon the summit, which it passed apparently with all the ease that a ship would cross a wave of the sea.

As the forward wheels of the car commenced their descent, the boat seemed gently to bow to the spectators and the town below, then glided quickly down the wooden way.