Hitchcock's career progressed successfully but unremarkably until he was appointed as assistant instructor of infantry tactics at West Point in January 1824, being promoted to captain at the end of that year.

He played a role in quashing the Eggnog riot in December 1826 with a minimum of bloodshed despite being the target of much of the violence by cadets, but would be sent back to his regular unit the following year by Superintendant Sylvanus Thayer after objecting that Article 92 of the 1806 Articles of War had been contravened by Thayer convening a court of inquiry without direction from the President or a request for same by the accused.

[citation needed] Thayer relented, and from 1829 to 1833, Hitchcock served as commandant of cadets at West Point and was promoted to major in 1838.

In October 1855, he resigned from the Army following a refusal by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis to extend a four-month leave of absence that he had requested for reasons of health.

He moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and began a presumed retirement, occupying himself with writing and studies of general literature and philosophy.

In Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism, the Viennese psychologist Herbert Silberer credited Hitchcock with helping to open the way for his explorations of the psychological content of alchemy.

This collection, which consists of 73 bound volumes and approximately 200 loose manuscripts, currently resides in the Warren D. Allen Music Library at Florida State University.

[7] Included in this collection are works by some of the general's contemporaries, music manuscripts handwritten by Hitchcock himself, and items of personal correspondence.