[1] Lyman grew up working on his father's farm and attending the district school.
[2] In August 1862, during the American Civil War, Lyman enrolled as a private in Company C of the newly created 147th New York Infantry Regiment.
He fought with his regiment in the Battles of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Haymarket, Mine Run, and the Wilderness.
He and other prisoners were transferred first to Charleston, then to Camp Sorghum in Columbia, where he suffered severe and prolonged illness.
[3] In 1866, Governor Reuben Fenton made him lieutenant-colonel of the New York National Guard to organize a second regiment in Oswego County.
In 1868, when it was decided the National Guard should be reduced, the regiment was disbanded and he left the service.
While he only served on it for a year, he was credited with instituting reforms and establishing better methods for conducting its affairs.
As Commissioner, he managed to collect and turn over to the State and local treasuries over eleven million dollars in the department's first year of existence.
He wrote two books: "The Old Homestead," about his early life, and "The Windward Islands," a narrative of travels in the West Indies.