Suffering from ill health following his Italian service, mostly due to exposure and privation, Mott subsequently served as a shipmate on various clippers during the next several years.

[3] He eventually returned to the United States and enlisted in the Union Army shortly before the American Civil War[5] where he was assigned as captain of artillery at the Chain Bridge fortification in Washington, D.C.

Mott and the 3rd New York Artillery saw action during the Seven Days Battles fought for five consecutive hours defeating each Confederate force put against them though sustaining heavy casualties.

With orders to confront and disperse the mob, Mott led a troop of cavalry and a battery of howitzers supporting General Dodge and the 8th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

Upon reaching Eighth Avenue, the soldiers discovered three African Americans hanging to lamp posts "while a gang of ferocious women crowded about the dangling bodies, slashing them with knives as a mob of men estimated at more than five thousand yelled and cheered".

[7] Almost immediately after returning to his command, Mott and his men were assaulted by bricks and stones hurled by the rioters, followed by "a brisk fire from muskets and pistols".

Believing they intended to capture the regiment's guns, Mott ordered Captain Howell to bring two howitzers into position in Seventh Avenue and prepare to sweep Thirty-Second Street with artillery fire.

Mott led his men against the rioters; the cavalry and infantry units charged with sabre and bayonet and managed to drive the mob back to Eighth Avenue.

[1] In early 1869, Mott was contacted by the then Egyptian Khedive Isma'il Pasha to enlist his help in recruiting American officers to reorganize Egypt's military forces.

Being subordinate to the Ottoman Empire, and thus without official diplomatic representation, Isma'il was not able to request assistance directly from the U.S. government and instead had to rely on independent agents.

His father, Valentine Mott, had been personal physician to Sultan Abdulmejid I and one of his sisters was married to the Ottoman ambassador to the United States, Blacque Bey.

Many of the men recruited by Mott had fought on one side or the other during the Civil War, were graduates from West Point and Annapolis Naval Academy and helped rebuild both the Egyptian army and navy.

Declining to renew it, Mott instead turned over command to Charles Stone[4] and returned to Turkey to take part in the wars between Serbia, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.