During the American Civil War, Covell entered the Confederate States Army with the rank of major and served on the staff of Brigadier General Henry A.

Under his leadership, the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind experienced "unprecedented success" and its student body began to grow due to his initiatives.

[1][2] Following the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Covell entered the Confederate States Army with the rank of major and served on the staff of Brigadier General Henry A.

[3][12][13] Under his leadership, the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind experienced "unprecedented success" and its student body began to grow due to Covell's initiatives.

[12] Covell found that 12 out of West Virginia's 54 counties had no representatives at the schools, so he urged the Board of Regents to canvass the state for students eligible to attend the institution.

[15] In 1877, at Covell's recommendation, the schools' board established the Department of Visible Speech in which deaf-mute students were instructed in the manner of articulation and lip reading.

[18] Covell continued serving as principal of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind until his death from stomach cancer on Saturday, June 4, 1887, in Romney.

[1][2][3][13][17] Known for his excellence as an executive and administrative officer, all his affairs were found by the president of the school's Board of Regents "to be finished, so that nothing remained to be done" on the day of his death.

[3] Following his death, Covell was honored in 1888 at the National Conference of Superintendents and Principals of Institutions for Deaf Mutes in Jackson, Mississippi, by W. O. Connor, Principal of the Georgia School for the Deaf, who stated: [W]e greatly deplore his [Covell's] loss to the Institution over which he presided with such universal acceptability; and that in his death we recognize the loss of a friend worthy of the fullest confidence, and an official of marked ability and adaptation to his duties, which he always performed with a faithfulness and efficiency unexcelled.

[19]His obituary in The Churchman remarked of Covell: [W]ith untiring zeal and fidelity, he has labored in the noble work of elevating and educating the deaf, dumb and the blind.

"[3] Prior to the church's construction, it is likely Covell that allowed Saint Stephen's to utilize the chapel at the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind to hold their services.