 He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1856, and at Harvard Law School in 1859, and in that year was admitted to the bar of New York.At the beginning of the Civil War he became 1st lieutenant in the 11th infantry, U.S. Army, and was appointed regimental adjutant, and served during the peninsular campaign under George B. McClellan, being brevetted captain for gallantry at the Battle of Gaines' Mill on 27 June 1862.He was with his regiment at the Second Battle of Bull Run, being then appointed aide-de-camp to the general-in-chief.