At the beginning of the year 1853, owing to doubts in regard to his fitness for the pastoral work, he turned his attention to the study of law, and removed to the city of New York.
His scholastic tendencies, however, were too strong to be resisted, and in 1854 he returned to New Haven, where he devoted himself for four years to the careful study of the Hebrew language and the Old Testament Scriptures.
He had already become one of the most successful and promising scholars in the country in his department, and in his death the cause of theological learning sustained a loss which is not easily measured.
He was with great difficulty, and only by the urgent advice of his friends, prevented from enlisting as a soldier in the Union Army; and, when at length he gave up going himself, he provided successively two substitutes to serve in his place.
Not content with this, after the close of the Seminary year in June 1865, he engaged in the work of the United States Sanitary Commission, and served in one of the Hospitals at City Point, Virginia.