Jed Lake served as Lieutenant Colonel of the 27th Iowa Infantry Regiment, second-in-command to Colonel James I. Gilbert. Organized at Dubuque in 1862, the regiment first guarded the Minnesota frontier during the Sioux uprising before joining the Red River Campaign and fighting at Pleasant Hill, Tupelo, and the Battle of Nashville. The regiment mustered out in August 1865 after suffering 193 total fatalities, mostly from disease.