He opened up a private law practice, but following the outbreak of the Civil War, he left Goshen to serve in the Union Army.
In 1879, the Indiana State Bar Association chose Mitchell to be one of their delegates to a legal convention in Saratoga, New York.
Additionally, Mitchell served as legal counsel for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company and as a member of the board of trustees of DePauw University.
Mitchell's marriage also made him a relative of James S. Frazer, a former Indiana Supreme Court Justice who also married into the Defrees family.
While serving on the bench, Mitchell helped resolve a legal dispute between the owners of a dam on the St. Joseph River in South Bend.
Mitchell was eulogized by fellow Indiana Supreme Court Justice Byron Elliott at his funeral in Goshen.
[1][2][5][6] In 2009, Goshen mayor Allan Kauffman announced that the city would purchase Mitchell's historic Queen Anne style (built circa 1870) house to renovate and preserve it.