[3] Miller attended private schools and thereafter read law without supervision to gain admission to the bar in 1851.
[1] Miller was a United States Attorney from 1856 to 1861,[3] and a Confederate States of America District Attorney during the American Civil War, from 1861 to 1865,[3] appointed to the latter position by Confederate president Jefferson Davis.
[4][3][1] Miller became a justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1894, and served until his death, in New Orleans, on March 4, 1899.
[3][1] Miller died in his home shortly after an operation intended to relieve a bout of intense pain in his intestines.
Although the operation was deemed a success, and the pain was alleviated, he shortly thereafter lapsed into a coma, from which he never recovered.