During his service in the American Civil War he was in the battles of Fredericksburg, Virginia; Horseshoe Bend, Kentucky; the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi; the Assault on Jackson, Mississippi; the battles of Blue Springs, Tennessee; London, Tennessee; Campbell's Station, Tennessee; the siege of Knoxville, Tennessee; the Assault on Fort Saunders, at Knoxville; Thurley's Ford, Tennessee; Strawberry Plains, Tennessee; Chuckey Bend; Wilderness (for actions during which he would later be awarded the Medal of Honor); Ny River; Spottsylvania Court House (in which he was wounded, while leading a charge of the Twentieth Michigan and Fifty-first Pennsylvania). He remained at the hospital about two months. For gallant conduct on this occasion he received a commission as brevet colonel. He was next in the siege of Petersburg, July, 1864, the Weldon Railroad, Reams Station, Virginia; Poplar Spring Church, Virginia; Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher's Run, and the siege of Petersburg, from November 1864, to March 1865.