[1] He was born in the state in Georgia to a white Irish father and a free "mulatto" woman.
He was educated in Philadelphia by Octavius Catto at the Institute for Colored Youth,[2] but returned to the south to serve in the Alabama House of Representatives during the Reconstruction era.
[3] Charles Spencer Smith, his colleague in the Alabama House, described him as a friend.
[4] Theodore Roosevelt nominated him to be Receiver of Public Monies in Huntsville, Alabama.
[5] He was the lead author of Under Fire With the Tenth Cavalry about "the Negro's Participation in Wars of the United States" and the Spanish-American War in particular.