He served as an officer in the Seminole War, and was assistant instructor of tactics at West Point in 1843–44.

With the outbreak of the Civil War and the secession of Texas in early 1861, he was captured with Major Sibley's command on April 27.

During this period, he was promoted to major on September 9, 1861, and organized an infantry brigade at Mansfield, Ohio.

He saw action in a series of small engagements—Shepherdsville, Lebanon Junction, and Lawrenceburg, for which he was brevetted as a colonel in the Regular Army.

He was then assigned to the command of the District of Northern Alabama, and was engaged in the capture of General Roddy's camp, in the expulsion of Joseph Wheeler from middle Tennessee, and in the defense against Nathan Bedford Forrest's raid.