On April 18, 1863, he was appointed Provost Marshal for Schuylkill County and assumed the duty of conscripting men needed for military service. This was an unpopular chore and he and his assistants and their families received numerous threats upon their lives. The draft was so vigorously resisted by the farmers and miners in Schuylkill County that Tower was assigned two companies of militia to assist him in enforcing conscription. The miners of the Heckscherville Valley, gathered a mob of about 3,000 people to march on Tower's home, but he retaliated immediately by marching his armed men into their midst, seizing those who had been drafted, and swearing them into military service. During his tenure as Provost Marshal he conscripted his full quota of 20,000 men. which earned him a citation from President Lincoln.