During the First Serbian Uprising, he joined the insurgents and worked in organizing the government and supplying the army. He was appointed duke in 1807 of Jadar defending this troubled area from Turkish incursions from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He fought the Turks in Krupanj, Rozaje, Rađevo Polje, and most often in Loznica, where several bloody battles were fought with the Bosnian Turkish army. He was wounded in one of those fights.