Young Morris was educated in the local schools and was apprenticed at the age of twelve in the print room of Indianapolis's first newspaper.

In June 1830, he accepted an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

At the start of the Civil War, Governor of Indiana Oliver Morton appointed Morris as the quartermaster general of the state's troops.

[3] Soon, Morris took command of a brigade of newly raised Indiana state troops and led them into western Virginia.

Around noon on July 13, 1861, Morris attacked the rear guard of the retreating Confederate forces at Corrick's Ford on the Cheat River.

Morris's men pursued the Rebels for several miles in a running skirmish before finally routing them after killing Confederate General Robert S. Garnett.