Daniel led four regiments from Raleigh to Goldsboro and organized them into a brigade; afterward, he organized two other brigades. In June 1862, he was ordered to Petersburg, Virginia, where his brigade joined General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia just before the Seven Days Battles, though it took no active part in the combat. Daniel was commissioned brigadier general on September 1, 1862, making him one of five men from Halifax County to attain that rank in the Confederate Army. He spent the fall of 1862 with his brigade at Drewy's Bluff in Virginia and subsequently served in North Carolina, although his unit saw limited combat action.