In October 1872 he traveled to England as a member of the commission in charge of supervising the construction of the Chanchamayo [es] and Pilcomayo gunboats.

When President Mariano Ignacio Prado traveled aboard the Paita in December 1879 bound for the United States and Europe, to manage the remittance of weapons, José Gálvez Moreno accompanied him, together with Jorge Tezanos Pinto and Celso Zuleta.

[2] When the Chilean squadron appeared in Callao, from April 10, 1880, the port was blocked, the square was cut off in its communications by sea, and this part of the coast was subjected to enemy surveillance.

In an instant, the medical practitioner Manuel S. Ugarte [es] (Second in Command), taking advantage of the agility and strength that the sport had given him, loaded and threw the device onto the deck of the enemy vessel,[2] but not before having lit it after cutting the fuse with the help of Corporal Emilio San Martín; then Gálvez, according to what was simultaneously agreed, fired on the torpedo, getting it to explode after the second shot.

Gálvez recovered after long and careful treatment and by Supreme Decree of May 28, 1880, signed by Nicolás de Piérola, he was awarded the second class Steel Cross.

He continued to fight against Chile together with General Andrés Avelino Cáceres in the Breña campaign, forming part of the famous "ayudantina", the group of young officers who acted as assistants to the "Brujo de los Andes".

He was elected senator for the department of Cuzco in the congress held in Arequipa in 1883 by President Lizardo Montero after the Peruvian defeat in the war with Chile.

He was again under the orders of Cáceres, this time during the constitutional campaign of 1885 against Miguel Iglesias, and stood out in another feat: leading a handful of brave young men, he seized a locomotive and ten wagons loaded with weapons, ammunition and food, in the village of Chicla (November 25, 1885).