Brigadier General. He was appointed to West Point in 1877 and graduated with the class of 1882. His military career began after graduation with service in the West (1883-1891) with the 17th U.S. Infantry. He was a part of the Sioux Campaign of 1890-1891 which culminated in the Battle of Wounded Knee. He then served as a tactical officer at West Point (1891-1893); duty officer to Camp Pilot Butte, Montana (1893); and Regular Army officer with the California National Guard (1894), where he observed the civil unrest of the California Railroad Strikes. In 1898, he was reunited with the 7th U.S. Infantry, which was mobilized at Chickamauga Park, Georgia, for service in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, McIver's unit participated in the battle of El Caney. He was stationed at Ford Brady, Michigan, and at Leech Lake Indian Agency in Walker, Minnesota from 1898 to 1900. From 1900 to 1903, he was stationed at Nome and Fort St. Michael, Alaska. He served in the Philippine Islands from 1903 until July, 1905, when he returned to California as the Commandant of the U.S. Military prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. In 1907, he became the Commandant of the Army's first musketry school at Monterey, California. In 1911, he began work on a revision of the Army Small Arms Firing Manual. McIver served a second tour of duty in the Philippines (1914) before becoming executive officer of the Militia Bureau of the War Department (1915). Before U.S. intervention in World War I, he was promoted to Brigadier General and took command of the 161st Brigade of the 81st (Wild Cat) Division which trained at Camp Jackson and Camp Sevier, South Carolina. This unit became incorporated into the American Expeditionary Force and participated in the Muese-Argonne offensive. From 1919 until his retirement in 1922, McIver was stationed at Fort Pike, Arkansas and Fort Slocum, New York.