Born in Târgoviște, Dâmbovița County, he entered the Bucharest Military School for Officers in 1854, becoming a second lieutenant in 1856. He rose to lieutenant (1860), captain (1863), major (1866), lieutenant-colonel (1870), colonel (1873), brigadier general (1883), and major general (1893). A participant in the Romanian War of Independence, he commanded units on the front at Pleven and Vidin.