In 1857 he moved to Chapel Hill and taught at UNC. In 1863 Governor Zebulon B. Vance assigned him responsibility for forming and directing a company of students to defend the university from attack by Union forces. During the war he formed a business to manufacture for the Confederate army sulfuric and nitric acid, used in making gunpowder. Source for all of this info is from UNC-Chapel Hill online Library "Documenting The American South": DICTIONARY OF NORTH CAROLINA BIOGRAPHY edited by William S. Powell.