He graduated number twenty-six of thirty-nine from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1885.

[1] Among his classmates included several officers who would become future general officers, such as Beaumont B. Buck, Joseph E. Kuhn, Henry P. McCain, Robert Lee Bullard, George W. Burr, John D. Barrette, John M. Carson Jr., Robert A.

He also served in the Adjutant General's Department in Havana and in Pinar del Rio, Cuba.

Michie returned to Washington for duty with the General Staff, and also was sent as an observer of the German Army Maneuvers of 1908.

Michie was promoted to brigadier general (NA) on August 5, 1917, and was assigned to command the 53rd Infantry Brigade, a unit of the 27th Division, at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina, near Spartanburg.