Editing Thomas Brackett Reed (section)

===Legal and U.S. Navy career (1860–1865)===
As a senior, Reed reversed a previously mediocre academic record to lead his class; he finished fifth in the graduating class of 1860 and was elected to [[Phi Beta Kappa]].{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} Abandoning any interest in ministry, he spent the next years doing odd jobs and studying law. He taught school in Portland for a year before moving to [[California]] in 1861. He was admitted to the bar in [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] on September 8, 1863, after an examination by eminent California attorney [[William T. Wallace]].{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} While in San Jose, he delivered pro-Union speeches and signed a letter from sixteen members of the bar endorsing judge Samuel Bell McKee for re-election to the bench, citing McKee's determination to "uphold the Administration in its present efforts to suppress the rebellion and sustain the Constitution and laws of the United States."{{Sfn|Grant|2011|p=15}} However, he soon returned to Portland, deciding "nature never intended any man to live [in California], only to [[California Gold Rush|dig gold]] and get himself out of it, and to shudder in dreams ever afterwards."{{sfn|Robinson|1930|p=18}}

On his return to Maine, Reed joined the law offices of Howard and Strout as a clerk. He joined the United States Navy in April 1864, winning an appointment as acting assistant paymaster on the recommendation of Senator Fessenden. He served in that role, primarily on the gunboat [[USS Sibyl (1863)|USS ''Sibyl'']] on the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] and [[Tennessee River|Tennessee]] rivers, until honorably discharged in late 1865.{{sfn|Robinson|1930|pp=1–19}} When a Reed supporter later pointed out his opponents boasted of their war records, he retorted, "Tell them I kept a grocery on a gunboat down in Louisiana in wartime."{{sfn|Robinson|1930|p=19}}