Mezue nkebi ahịrịokwu a: Mgbe Hoffman dị afọ iri abụọ na ise, o sonyere ndị agha n'Agha Obodo. Mgbe ọ debanyere aha na Philadelphia na August 10, 1861, mgbe ahụ, ọ na eze kpọkọtara n'otu ụbọchị ahụ dị ka a nkịtị na Company E nke 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry (makwaara dị ka "Fire Zouaves"). A kpọgara ya na ndị agha ya na Virginia, ọ hụrụ ọgụ na Battle of Ball's Bluff (Ọktoba 21, 1861), sonyere na ọganihu nke ndị agha Union nke Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks na Winchester na Yorktown, ma lụọ agha ụbọchị asaa nke
Seven Pines (nke a makwaara dị ka Fair Oaks, May 31 ruo June 1, 1862), Savage's Station (June 29, 1862), na Malvern Hill (July 1, 1862) tupu itinye aka na agha nke Antietam (September 17, 1862), Fredericksburg (December 12-15 1862), na Chancellorsville (April 30 ruo May 6, 1863). N'October 1, 1863, a kpọfere ya na 143rd Company nke 2nd Battalion, U.S. Veteran Reserve Corps (nke a makwaara dị ka ndị agha na-enweghị isi), ma mesịa mee ka a kwanyere ya ùgwù.