The weather was bitter cold and he carried hot rocks in his pockets to keep his hands from freezing. His thoughtful mother put up his lunch the evening before and he started to school before daylight. The teacher gave him the promised attention and after that winter he got his education by his own exertion. So successful was he that by the time he was seventeen he was deputy clerk of the court under Nathaniel Hart. Not the least valuable were the lessons of patriotism that he learned from the elders who surrounded the hearthstone of his boyhood. He was also for a time a clerk in the store of the subsequently famous John J. Audubon. He divided his attention between selling goods in the store and writing in the clerk's office. In 1820 he was married and settled on a farm on the banks of the Ohio river in Vanderburg county, Indiana. It was while living there that he saw the first steamboat on the Ohio. He was a great admirer of the inventor, Fulton, and afterward owned a steamboat.
Young Lane soon became a man of the people with whom he had cast his lot, and when barely eligible he was elected a member of the Indiana legislature and took his seat to the astonishment of many older worthies. Mr. Lane was a fearless legislator, always acting from a conscientious belief in the truth of his views and following them up with spirit and vigilance. He continued to represent his district in the state legislature in one branch or the other for the period of twenty-four years, or until the Mexican war in 1846 called him to the field of battle. During that year a call was made in Indiana to furnish volunteers for the war. Lane was at that time a member of the state legislature and he immediately resigned his seat and entered as a private under Captain Walker. The companies, having rendezvoused at New Albany, selected Lane from the ranks as their colonel. In a few days further testimony of his worth was manifested by his receipt from Washington of his commission of brigadier general, a favor unsought and unexpected by him. On the 9th of July, 1846, he wrote a letter of acceptance and entered on the duties of his command. On the 24th of the same month, only two weeks after the receipt of his commission, he was at Brazos with all his troops and wrote to General Taylor communicating his arrival and concluding thus: "The brigade I have the honor to command is generally in good health and fine spirits, anxious to engage in active service." At length he was ordered to Saltillo and was made civil and military commandant of that post by Major General Butler. Here he established a vigilant police, protecting life and property, and built a strong fortification to provide against the threatened descent by Santa Ana. While in command at Saltillo, Lane personally visited each picket nightly, thus presenting to his men a faithful example of vigilance. After the battle of Monterey, Lane was ordered to join General Taylor. The famous battle of Buena Vista was fought on February 22 and 23, 1847. General Lane was third in command and served on the left wing. From the beginning to the end he was in the hottest of the fight. On the morning of the 23d Lane had the honor of opening the continuation of the battle on the plain, where he was attacked by a force of from four to five thousand infantry, artillery and lancers under General Ampudia—while at this crises Lane's force was reduced to four hundred men. But Lane's men, though few, were undismayed and defended their position with a gallantry worthy of the highest praise. As Lane commenced the fight on the 23d he also closed it in the evening, when, though wounded, he led the Indiana regiment, which, with the Mississippi regiment under Davis, came to the support of Bragg's artillery. Failing to pierce the American center, Santa Ana retired from the field. In this battle, where all were heroes, it is honorable to find Lane particularly noticed. Here is a picture of him: "When the grape and musket shot flew as thick as hail over our volunteers, their brave general, though wounded in the left shoulder by a musket ball, could be seen fifty yards in advance of his lines, waving his sword and encouraging his men by his impetuous bravery." General Lane remained encamped near the battlefield until June, when he was ordered with his brigade to New Orleans, where the latter was disbanded, its term of service
