James Lane was born on June 22, 1814, on the Ohio River, either in Boone County, Kentucky or Lawrenceburg, Indiana. He studied law and was admitted to practice in 1840. He joined the army when war broke out with Mexico, and led troops at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847.
Lane served as Indiana lieutenant governor from 1849 to 1853 and was elected to Congress as a Democrat. He voted for the Kansas-Nebraska Act, then moved to the Kansas Territory in April 1855. Lane became active in territorial politics, repeatedly being elected president of free-state conventions. In 1856, he was elected U.S. senator under the Topeka Constitution, but after the Senate failed to admit Kansas into the Union, he could not fill the position.
When Kansas entered the Union in 1861, Lane became a U. S. senator and acquaintance of President Abraham Lincoln. In the first weeks of the Civil War, Lane formed a “Frontier Guard” of Kansas men to protect the White House. President Lincoln appointed Lane a brigadier general of volunteers in 1861. Through various means, Lane managed to hold both his military appointment and his Senate seat simultaneously.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 30806
