After leaving Randolph-Macon, Staples attended the University of Virginia and then the College of William and Mary, where he received a law degree. He served in a number of public offices including deputy county clerk and member of the VA House of Delegates. He was a lawyer and large landholder who was listed as a farmer in the 1860 census in Patrick County, VA. He represented Patrick County at Virginia's secession convention, where he was an anti-secessionist delegate although he ultimately voted for secession. Staples served only briefly in a military capacity as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General J.E.B. Stuart from approximately April to July 1862, when he was injured in a fall from his horse. Staples' military records are incomplete and unclear as to his specific dates of service and rank, and his letter requesting a presidential pardon states that he was assigned to the staff of J.E.B. Stuart "without any rank." He apparently returned to his estate in Patrick County and farmed for the remainder of the war. Staples took the oath of allegiance on August 1, 1865.
After the war, he remained in Patrick County, where he farmed and became a judge. Staples died August 6, 1895 and is buried in Fair View Cemetery in Roanoke, VA.
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