 After brief service as an instructor of physics at the United States Military Academy, he served in the Philippines as governor of the island of Leyte from 1899 to 1903 and participated in the campaign against the Moros.He returned to the Academy in 1903 to teach cavalry tactics, and from 1911 to 1915, he taught cavalry tactics for the New York National Guard and also at the training camp near Plattsburgh, New York.After returning to the Philippines in 1916 and 1917 to train the Philippine National Guard Division, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on June 28, 1917.