He was a prominent member of the Shenandoah county bar, and senior member of the firm of Williams and Brothers. For years, he was one of the most prominent attorneys in the Valley. After his graduation from the University of Virginia in 1857, he located in Dubuque, Iowa, from which place he was elected to the Iowa Legislature serving in the Eighth General Assembly, 1860. He remained in the West until the breaking out of war between the States when he ran the blockade and joined the Confederate army, and served as lieutenant in Chews' Horse Artillery, which was attached to Ashby's regiments, and was afterwards Rossers' Brigade, and just at the close of the war was commissioned captain of the same company. He served as judge advocate general in Stuart's and then Hampton's Cavalry Corps. He located in Winchester for the practice of law in 1868, forming a partnership there with Captain John J. Williams, and in Woodstock with W. T. Williams. He represented the county of Frederick in the Virginia Legislature in 1873, and removed to Woodstock in 1883, where he has since resided. He married Miss Cora D. N. Pritchard, of Alexandria.