In 1859 he helped organize the Knights of the Golden Circle,[3][4] being chosen quartermaster general at the KGC's 1860 national convention.

[5] When the American Civil War erupted, Tyler joined the Confederate Army as a private in Company D of the 15th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, and was promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant the same date.

[6] Within early 1861 Tyler was promoted to the position of Regimental Quartermaster, and is said to have been Quartermaster-General on the staffs of Generals Benjamin F. Cheatham and Gideon Pillow with the rank of captain and later as major.

In the ensuing Chattanooga Campaign Tyler's (Bate's) brigade was posted on Missionary Ridge, right in the center of the Confederate second line near Bragg's headquarters.

For his physical recovery, he transferred into a hospital at West Point, Georgia, and was still there when he received a promotion to brigadier general on February 23, 1864.

He held the position during winter, guarding the railroad bridges over the Chattahoochee River with a small detachment of convalescent soldiers, invalids and militiamen.

[3] On the morning of April 16, 1865, seven days after Robert E. Lee's surrender, one of the brigades of Wilson's Cavalry Corps, commanded by Colonel Oscar Hugh La Grange and accompanied by a battery of artillery, attacked Fort Tyler.

He rests in a joint grave together with a longtime friend, Captain Celestino Gonzalez of the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment.