 Lindsley was a Republican and supported the Union.He served as Nashville postmaster from 1862 to 1867, during the American Civil War of 1861-1865.In a letter to Governor Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) on April 22, 1862, he blamed Reverend John Berry McFerrin (1807-1887), a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South for encouraging secessionist activities in Nashville, as opposed to more moderate Methodists like Reverend Holland Nimmons McTyeire (1824–1889), Reverend John B. Somers (1801-1876), Reverend James L. Houston (1806-1888) and Alexander Little Page Green (1806-1874).