He served during the Civil War first as Lieutenant Colonel, then Colonel and commander of the 1st Michigan Volunteer Infantry regiment. He was wounded in the face at the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, and at the Battle of Gettysburg, his regiment was part of Colonel William S. Tilton’s brigade that fought against attacking Confederates in the Stony Hill area West of the Wheatfield on July 2, 1863. Under intense fire during the engagement, he kept his Michigan soldiers on the battle line until he himself was shot and seriously wounded, and had to retreat to the rear of the Union lines. He was brevetted Brigadier General, US Volunteers on March 13, 1865 for “gallant and meritorious services during the war”. A monument to his regiment stands in “the Loop” on Sickles Avenue in the Gettysburg National Military Park.