opened a law office in Beatrice, being associated in business with Lynus B. Sale, a former college friend. In 1874, the University of Wisconsin conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. On June 25, 1875, he became associated with Alexander W. Conley in the organization of a company of state militia at Beatrice, and was commissioned first lieutenant of the company, which was designated as the Paddock Guards, in honor of United States Senator Algernon Paddock. In the summer of 1877, he was commissioned captain by the governor of Nebraska and placed in command of four companies of mounted rifles. He marched his battalion from Beatrice to Red Cloud, thence to northern Nebraska and Wyoming in pursuit of bands of marauding Native Americans. On his return, he was commissioned captain of the Paddock Guards, which command he held until June 13, 1881, when he was commissioned colonel of the First Regiment Nebraska National Guard. He had command of the Nebraska state troops and six companies of United States regulars during the labor strike in Omaha in March, 1882, at which time the city was placed under martial law; he was re-commissioned colonel July 10, 1884, and before the end of his term, on April 11, 1887, was promoted, by appointment and commission, to brigadier general and placed in command of the First Brigade, comprising two infantry regiments, a troop of cavalry, and a battery of artillery. On April 11, 1890, his commission as brigadier general was renewed for another term of three years. During the winter of 1890–1891, Colby and his command were called into active service on the occasion of the uprising of the Sioux Indians of Pine Ridge and other agencies in South Dakota and Nebraska. The command took part with great credit in the engagement at Wounded Knee and many skirmishes along the borders of the Badlands, where the hostile forces were located, and won the congratulations of Major General Nelson A. Miles, who complimented Colby on his successful management of the Nebraska troops. On his return home, Colby was presented with a gold medal for "gallant and efficient services rendered the state of Nebraska." The fourth day after the battle of Wounded Knee, when the detail went out to bury the dead, a Lakota baby girl, about four months old, was found on the battlefield, tied, in the usual fashion, on her dead mother's