sentences:  His studies were interrupted by the Civil War; in March 1861, he joined the 41st Virginia Infantry of the Confederate Army, where he served until the end of the war.He was admitted to the bar in August 1866 and elected as the Commonwealth's Attorney and Corporation Counsel for the City of Petersburg in 1872, positions which he held until being elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals in 1883.He resigned the high bench in 1894 and returned to private practice in Petersburg.