Born in Pendleton, South Carolina on April 29, 1814, Miller moved with his parents to Rabun County, Georgia in 1820.

Miller was an unsuccessful Whig candidate for election as a U.S. Representative to the twenty-ninth United States Congress in 1844.

He resumed the practice of medicine in Rome, Georgia and was a member of the faculty of the Atlanta Medical College.

Miller's tenure in the Senate, at a mere seven days long, ranks (as of 2021) as the third-shortest in American history and the shortest for those who won a full term.

[5] Miller died in Atlanta on May 31, 1896, and was interred in Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Rome, Georgia.