He served with the Army of the Potomac for three years, received a gunshot wound to the thigh, and was captured at and held captive for two months following the Second Battle of Bull Run.

After the end of the Civil War, he returned to Pennsylvania and engaged in the oil refining business near Pittsburgh until 1883.

However, Democrats did not unite behind Ballantine, and ultimately his fellow Populist state senator Henry Heitfeld was elected.

[15][16] He was appointed by Governor Frank W. Hunt to the board of directors of the Blackfoot Insane Asylum in 1901 for a term of two years.

[2][17] In 1906, he was a delegate to the National Irrigation Congress,[18] and he was president of the Bellevue State Bank when it opened that December.