 In addition he served as brigadier general of militia in Kent County in 1861.In 1864 he defeated the Republican and Ultimate Unionist candidate Nathaniel Smithers, another Dickinson graduate, and was ultimately elected as a Democrat to the 39th and 40th Congress, serving from March 4, 1865 to March 4, 1869.During the first term he was on the Committee of Elections and in the second the Appropriations Committee.