He was appointed midshipman on 10 September 1841 and served aboard the sloop of war USS Cyane in the Pacific until 1843.

Assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron at the end of the decade, he returned to the United States and ordnance duty at the Washington Navy Yard just prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War.

[1] In April 1861, he assisted in preventing ships at Norfolk from falling to the enemy; and, in September, he led a boat expedition into Pensacola Harbor to destroy the Confederate privateer Judah.

He next assumed command of the gunboat Kennebec and participated in operations on the Mississippi River up to Vicksburg and served in the blockade of Mobile.

[1] Various duties, afloat and ashore, on both coasts, Atlantic and Pacific, followed, and he completed his last assignment, three years as Commandant of the Mare Island Navy Yard, in 1886.