100 Facts About Lew Wallace

Lewis Wallace was an American lawyer, Union general in the American Civil War, governor of New Mexico Territory, politician, diplomat, and author from Indiana.

Lew Wallace was appointed Indiana's adjutant general and commanded the 11th Indiana Infantry Regiment.

Lew Wallace, who attained the rank of major general, participated in the Battle of Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, and the Battle of Monocacy.

Lew Wallace served on the military commission for the trials of the Lincoln assassination conspirators, and presided over the trial of Henry Wirz, the Confederate commandant of the Andersonville prison camp.

Lew Wallace resigned from the US Army in November 1865 and briefly served as a major general in the Mexican army, before returning to the United States.

Lew Wallace was appointed governor of the New Mexico Territory and served as US minister to the Ottoman Empire.

Lew Wallace retired to his home in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he continued to write until his death in 1905.

Lewis "Lew" Wallace was born on April 10,1827, in Brookville, Indiana.

Lew Wallace was the second of four sons born to Esther French Wallace and David Wallace.

In 1832 the family moved to Covington, Indiana, where Lew Wallace's mother died from tuberculosis on July 14,1834.

Lew Wallace began his formal education at the age of six at a public school in Covington, but he much preferred the outdoors.

Lew Wallace had a talent for drawing and loved to read, but he was a discipline problem at school.

In 1836, at the age of nine, Lew Wallace joined his older brother in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he briefly attended the preparatory school division of Wabash College, but soon transferred to another school more suitable for his age.

In 1840, when Wallace was thirteen, his father sent him to a private academy at Centerville, Indiana, where his teacher encouraged Lew's natural affinity for writing.

Sixteen-year-old Lew Wallace went out to earn his own wages in 1842, after his father refused to pay for more schooling.

Lew Wallace found a job copying records at the Marion County clerk's office and lived in an Indianapolis boardinghouse.

Lew Wallace joined the Marion Rifles, a local militia unit, and began writing his first novel, The Fair God, but it was not published until 1873.

Lew Wallace said in his autobiography that he had never been a member of any organized religion, but he did believe "in the Christian conception of God".

Lew Wallace was appointed a second lieutenant, and on June 19,1846, mustered into military service with the Marion Volunteers.

Lew Wallace rose to the position of regimental adjutant and the rank of first lieutenant while serving in the army of Zachary Taylor, but Lew Wallace personally did not participate in combat.

Lew Wallace was mustered out of the volunteer service on June 15,1847, and returned to Indiana, where he intended to practice law.

In 1848 Lew Wallace met Susan Arnold Elston at the Crawfordsville home of Henry Smith Lane, Lew Wallace's former commander during the Mexican War.

Lew Wallace was admitted to the bar in February 1849, and moved from Indianapolis to Covington, Indiana, where he established a law practice.

In 1851 Lew Wallace was elected prosecuting attorney of Indiana's 1st congressional district, but he resigned in 1853 and moved his family to Crawfordsville, in Montgomery County, Indiana.

Lew Wallace continued to practice law and was elected as a Democrat to a two-year term in the Indiana Senate in 1856.

Indiana's governor, the Republican Oliver P Morton, asked Wallace to help recruit Indiana volunteers for the Union army.

Lew Wallace, who sought a military command, agreed to become the state's adjutant general on the condition that he would be given command of a regiment of his choice.

Indiana's quota of six regimental units was filled within a week, and Lew Wallace took command of the 11th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which was mustered into the Union army on April 25,1861.

Lew Wallace received his formal commission as a colonel in the Union army the following day.

On June 5,1861, Lew Wallace went with the 11th Indiana to Cumberland, Maryland, and on June 12, the regiment won a minor battle at Romney, Virginia,.

On September 3,1861, Lew Wallace was promoted to brigadier general of US Army volunteers and given command of a brigade.

Lew Wallace's troops secured the deserted fort and watched the Union attack on Fort Henry from their hilltop position.

Henry W Halleck, was concerned that Confederate reinforcements would try to retake the two forts when the Union troops moved overland toward Fort Donelson, so Wallace was left in command at Fort Henry to keep the forts secure.

Lew Wallace arrived in front of Fort Donelson the following day and was placed in charge of the newly-forming 3rd Division.

Lew Wallace's decision stopped their forward movement and was key in stabilizing a defensive line for the Union troops.

Smith, and Lew Wallace were promoted to major general in that order for their efforts.

Lew Wallace, who was age thirty-four at the time of his promotion, became the youngest major general in the Union army.

Lew Wallace's orders were to guard the Union's rear and to cover the road leading west to Bethel Station, Tennessee, where railroad lines led to Corinth, Mississippi, 20 miles to the south.

The written orders were lost during the battle, so their exact wording cannot be confirmed; however, most eyewitness accounts agree that Grant ordered Lew Wallace to join the right side of the Union army, presumably in support of Brig.

However, Grant claimed in his memoirs that he had ordered Lew Wallace to take the route nearest to the river to reach Pittsburg Landing.

Historians are divided, with some stating that Lew Wallace's explanation is the most logical.

Lew Wallace informed Wallace that Sherman had been forced back from Shiloh Church and was fighting closer to the river, near Pittsburg Landing.

The Union army had been pushed back so far that Lew Wallace was heading toward the rear of the advancing Southern troops.

Lew Wallace briefly considered attacking the Confederates, but abandoned the idea.

Lew Wallace had his soldiers lie down when they were under fire, which minimized casualties.

Lew Wallace maneuvered his division so that it repeatedly turned the Confederate left flank.

At around 1:00 pm, Lew Wallace worked a few regiments around the Confederate left flank, forcing their withdrawal to a third position.

Lew Wallace spent the remainder of his life trying to resolve the accusations and change public opinion about his role in the battle.

On March 14,1863, Lew Wallace wrote a letter to Halleck that provided an official explanation of his actions.

Lew Wallace wrote Grant several letters and met with him in person more than once in an attempt to vindicate himself.

Sherman urged Lew Wallace to be patient and not to request a formal inquiry.

Wallace's widow gave Grant a letter that Lew Wallace had written to her the day before the battle, Grant changed his mind.

Lew Wallace began a defensive plan that would place his army on the north side of the Kentucky River, about 15 miles from Boonesboro to defend against the advance of Gen.

Lew Wallace had all of the locks on the river in the area opened to flood the fords, confiscated every boat in the area and moved them to the north bank, and the position was secured by sheer limestone cliffs on his flanks.

Lew Wallace immediately returned to Cincinnati and began vigorous efforts for the defense of Cincinnati.

Lew Wallace ordered martial law, set a strict curfew, closed all businesses, and began putting male citizens to work on rifle pits, felling trees for makeshift abatis and clear fields of fire, and improving the 1861 earthwork defenses.

Lew Wallace was ordered to take command of Camp Chase, a prisoner-of-war camp at Columbus, Ohio, where he remained until October 30,1862.

In mid-July 1863, while Lew Wallace was home, he helped protect the railroad junction at North Vernon, Indiana, from Confederate general John Hunt Morgan's raid into southern Indiana.

Lew Wallace, who had returned to active duty on March 12,1864, assumed command of VIII Corps, which was headquartered in Baltimore.

Lew Wallace's men repelled the Confederate attacks for more than six hours before retreating to Baltimore.

In Grant's memoirs, he praised Lew Wallace's delaying tactics at Monocacy:.

General Lew Wallace contributed on this occasion by the defeat of the troops under him, a greater benefit to the cause than often falls to the lot of a commander of an equal force to render by means of a victory.

Lew Wallace provided Grant with copies of his proposals and reported on the negotiations, but no agreement was made.

In mid-August 1865, Lew Wallace was appointed head of an eight-member military commission that investigated the conduct of Henry Wirz, the Confederate commandant in charge of the South's Andersonville prison camp.

Lew Wallace tendered his resignation from the US Army on November 4,1865, effective November 30, and returned to Mexico to assist the Mexican army.

Lew Wallace returned to Indiana in 1867 to practice law, but the profession did not appeal to him, and he turned to politics.

Lew Wallace arrived in Santa Fe on September 29,1878, to begin his service as governor of the New Mexico Territory during a time of lawless violence and political corruption.

Lew Wallace was involved in efforts to resolve New Mexico's Lincoln County War, a contentious and violent disagreement among the county's residents, and tried to end a series of Apache raids on territorial settlers.

In 1880, while living at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, Lew Wallace completed the manuscript for Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

On March 1,1879, after previous efforts to restore order in Lincoln County had failed, Lew Wallace ordered the arrest of those responsible for local killings.

On March 17,1879, Lew Wallace secretly met with Bonney, who had witnessed the murder of a Lincoln County lawyer named Huston Chapman.

Lew Wallace wanted him to testify in the trial of Chapman's accused murderers, but Bonney wanted Lew Wallace's protection from his enemies and amnesty for his earlier crimes.

Lew Wallace arranged for a "fake" arrest and Bonney's detention in a local jail to assure his safety.

Lew Wallace was shot and killed on July 14,1881, by Sheriff Pat Garrett, who had been appointed by local ranching interests who had tired of his rustling their herds.

On May 19,1881, Lew Wallace was appointed US Minister to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople.

Lew Wallace remained at the diplomatic post until 1885, and became a trusted friend of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

Lew Wallace complained that Kriger had failed to receive him with the honor due to his rank, and refused to issue any apology for the alleged shortcoming.

Lew Wallace visited Jerusalem and the surrounding area, a setting in his previous novel, Ben-Hur, and did research in Constantinople, the locale for The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell, which he began writing in 1887.

Lew Wallace resigned from the US diplomatic service on March 4,1885.

The sultan wanted Lew Wallace to continue to work in the Ottoman Empire, and even made a proposal to have him represent Ottoman interests in England or France, but Lew Wallace declined and returned home to Crawfordsville.

Lew Wallace confessed in his autobiography that he took up writing as a diversion from studying law.

In 1843, Lew Wallace began writing his first novel, The Fair God, but it was not published until 1873.

Lew Wallace's book sold seven thousand copies in its first year.

Lew Wallace wrote the manuscript for Ben-Hur, his second and best-known novel, during his spare time at Crawfordsville, and completed it in Santa Fe, while serving as the territorial governor of New Mexico.

Lew Wallace wrote subsequent novels and biographies, but Ben-Hur remained his most important work.

Lew Wallace considered The Prince of India; or, Why Constantinople Fell as his best novel.

Lew Wallace wrote a biography of President Benjamin Harrison, a fellow Hoosier and Civil War general, and The Wooing of Malkatoon, a narrative poem.

Lew Wallace was writing his autobiography when he died in 1905.

Lew Wallace continued to write after his return from the Ottoman Empire.

Lew Wallace patented several of his own inventions, built a seven-story apartment building in Indianapolis, the Blacherne, and drew up plans for a private study at his home in Crawfordsville.

Lew Wallace remained active in veterans groups, including writing a speech for the dedication of the battlefield at the Chickamauga.

Lew Wallace's elaborate writing study, which he described as "a pleasure-house for my soul", served as his private retreat.

Lew Wallace had a moat on two sides of the Study and stocked it so he could fish from the back porch and a landing.

Lew Wallace loved fishing so much he invented and patented a special traveler's fishing pole.

Lew Wallace attended a reunion at Shiloh in 1894, his first return since 1862, and retraced his journey to the battlefield with veterans from the 3rd Division.

Lew Wallace returned to Shiloh for a final time in 1901 to walk the battlefield with David W Reed, the Shiloh Battlefield Commission's historian, and others.

Lew Wallace died before the manuscript of his memoirs was fully completed, and it is unknown whether he would have revised his final account of the battle.

Lew Wallace died at home in Crawfordsville, on February 15,1905, of atrophic gastritis.

Lew Wallace was a man of many interests and a lifelong adventure seeker, who remained a persistent, self-confident man of action.

Lew Wallace was impatient and highly sensitive to personal criticisms, especially those related to his command decisions at Shiloh.