 In April 1863 he persuaded his parents to allow him to re-enlist, whereupon he joined Company M of the 16th New York Cavalry and earned promotion to the rank of corporal.In December 1864 he resigned from the Army to join the Navy, serving as Acting Third Assistant Engineer on the gunboat "USS Muscoota" through the end of the war.After his military discharge in August 1865, he returned to his family in Schenectady and enrolled at Union College.