Within ten days of the outbreak of hostilities at Fort Sumter, South Carolina on April 12, 1861, Tower recruited some 270 Schuylkill County men to enter the Union Army under a three-month enlistment agreement. This unit was referred to as the "Tower Guards", and they were created as Company H of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment; this was attached to a brigade commanded by Major General Robert Patterson. Commissioned as the unit captain, he provided uniforms and arms for the troops at his own expense.