Turner was a chaplain for two years. Shortly after reporting for duty, he caught smallpox and spent months in the hospital recovering. He returned to his company in May 1864, just before they participated in its first armed conflict, the Battle of Wilson's Wharf on the James River. From May through December, his unit participated in the fighting around Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia. At the end of the year, they fought in the massive amphibious attack against Fort Fisher.