On October 1, 1861, he enrolled at Cortland, New York, and was mustered in as corporal of the 76th NY Volunteers to fight in the American Civil War. On December 13, 1862, he was wounded in the Battle of Fredericksburg. In July 1863, he was commissioned a second lieutenant, and in February 1864 a first lieutenant. He was captured in action on May 5, 1864, during the Battle of the Wilderness, later paroled, and discharged in February 1865.