He was born in Wied-Selters, Germany. He graduated from the Hesse-Darmstadt military academy in 1848, and emigrated to the United States, where he settled in the state of Missouri. At the beginning of the American Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army, and was made captain of a company of the Third Missouri Infantry. In September 1861, he was promoted to major of the Fifteenth Missouri Infantry. He fought in the battles of Carthage, Pea Ridge, Corinth, Perryville, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge.