The Interesting Life of Lew Wallace—Part 2

 

Last month, I shared some about the very interesting historical figure, Lew Wallace, from his early days as a wayward student to a full-fledged, practicing attorney, to a military man. If you didn’t get a chance to read that post, you can find it here. So let’s pick up where we left off. As you will recall, After the Battle of Shiloh, Wallace was taken off active duty for several years due to a supposed mistake he’d made in carrying out Grant’s orders.

 

Military Man, Part 3—Redeeming His Career

Finally,

in 1864, Wallace was brought back to active duty, and it was a good thing he was. During the Battle of Monocacy, Wallace led his 5,800 men into battle against Confederate General Jubal A. Early and his roughly 15,000 men who intended to invade Washington D.C. and take the capital. Given the huge difference in the size of their forces, Wallace and the Union were defeated that day, but General Grant later wrote high praise for Wallace’s actions, noting that if it weren’t for Wallace’s presence slowing Early’s advancement down, surely Washington D.C. would’ve been taken. The delay and defeat was just the diversion needed to get reinforcements into the city. With this unexpected turn of events, Wallace was once again in the good graces of General Grant.

 

In 1865, after the assassination of Lincoln, Lew Wallace was appointed to the commission to investigate all of the various conspirators in the president’s murder. Once they were found guilty, Wallace was put on another commission to investigate the Confederate leader of Andersonville Prison, Henry Wirz. This commission found Wirz guilty and sentenced him to hang. 

 

Second Foray Into Politics

Sometime after the war’s end, Lew Wallace returned to Indiana and picked up as a lawyer again. Unhappy with that life, he spent his free time writing a novel and eventually decided to make a bid for U.S. Congress. He was defeated in 1868, so ran again in 1870. This also was an unsuccessful run. In the 1876 presidential election, he threw his support behind Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, and after Hayes won the office, he rewarded Wallace with an appointment to become the governor of the New Mexico Territory.

 

Governing During Turbulent Times

Billy the Kid
circa 1880

New Mexico Territory in 1878 was not the quiet place Wallace might have hoped it would be. He was close to finishing his second novel, and I’m sure was hoping to have plenty of time to pen the last words so he could seek publication. However, he arrived in the territory to find that the Apaches were raiding regularly, and the white settlers were being terrorized by the ongoing land war known as the Lincoln County War. If you know your western history, you’ll immediately recognize that name, because it’s associated with one of the Old West’s most prominent bad guys—Billy the Kid. 

 

Unable to bring an end to the fighting any other way, Wallace ordered the arrests of all participants in the feud, including Billy, on March 1, 1879. Roughly two weeks after he did so, Wallace and Billy met secretly. Wallace’s plan was to make a deal with the infamous outlaw—in exchange for Billy’s testimony against the murderers of a prominent Lincoln County attorney, Billy would be given amnesty for any and all crimes committed up to that point. Billy upheld his end of the deal, giving grand jury testimony in April. However, the local district attorney revoked the deal and refused to let Billy out of jail. What is an outlaw to do? Well, escape, of course! Billy the Kid slipped out of the jail and back into his old life, finally being killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett a few months after Wallace resigned from his position as governor in 1881.

 

Author of An Enduring Classic

During the years as governor of New Mexico, Wallace did finish his novel—and get it published. It was none other than the epic Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ. Surely, he could not have known at the time that he was penning what would become the best-selling American novel of all time (as measured from its publication in 1880 to present), nor that it would be turned into a stage play and have six motion picture versions made from his words. Of course, the best-known rendition stars Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur.

 

Continuing His Political Career

Wallace’s epic novel garnered the attention of many, including President James Garfield, who was so impressed by the work that he sought out the author with a proposition. To give Wallace every opportunity to research and write a sequel to Ben-Hur, Garfield appointed Wallace as the U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey). His duties there included the protection of American citizens and U.S. trade rights for the area, but he also developed relationships with Sultan Abdul Hamid II and others and helped to negotiate a dispute between the Ottoman Empire and Britain. He served a total of four years in the position until the presidency changed hands, at which time he resigned.

 

Statue of Wallace in 
Statuary Hall,
US Capitol Building

The Final Years

After his time in the Ottoman Empire, Lew Wallace returned to Crawfordsville,
Indiana, and lived his final years writing in the study he built next to their home. He said that the writing space was a “pleasure-house for his soul,” a place where he could write, relax, and even fish in the stocked moat he built on two sides of the building. The study is now kept as a museum to this incredible man’s life. It was there he penned the last five of his seven published works.

 

In addition to his writing, he continued to remain active in veteran’s affairs and even attempted to volunteer his military services at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War (he was 71 at the time!). His generous offer was refused. Wallace lived to be 77, dying at home in Crawfordsville on February 15, 1905.

 

It’s Your Turn: Lew Wallace is best remembered as the author of Ben-Hur, but as I’ve shown, he had many exciting and varied experiences. Which one stands out to you the most? Which do you think has had the greatest impact on history?

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list several times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

 

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How Tall Were Our Historical Heroes?

This past week, I watched an interesting show on National Geographic Channel about one married couple’s attempts to authenticate an old tintype photograph they’d bought which they believed to depict Billy The Kid and a few of the Regulators playing, of all things, croquet. Perhaps you’ve heard stories about this “new discovery” (a few years old now)—or even watched the show. I won’t take the time to rehash the details in the 2-hour episode. Nor is my intent to debate whether the photograph truly doesdepict these famous figures out of Old West lore. There is debate about the validity of the claim. So if you’d like to read a detailed account of whether this photograph truly is “the real McCoy” in Billy The Kid memorabilia, please look at the thorough article done by True West Magazine. 

Old Tintype photograph that is rumored to depict Billy The Kid
and several of the Regulators

I found many of the details presented in the show to be a fascinating view into how one goes about authenticating antiques and other memorabilia. One such detail was how the facial recognition specialist hired to compare the new image to the only known one of William Bonney, then used the croquet mallet held by the supposed “Billy” to figure the man’s height. (Just a note, in the above-referenced article, they poke holes in the specialist’s assertion that there was a standard length for croquet mallets in that time period, so his math could be wrong). But, regardless, I found it interesting to see them estimate the supposed “Billy” figure’s height to be 5’8” tall, which, lo and behold, is the height recorded for the real Billy The Kid in history.

Close-up of the "Billy" figure, holding a
croquet mallet.

Hmmm. Billy The Kid was just 5’8”? He wasn’t much taller than me. Certainly not a very imposing figure for such a notorious outlaw. This got me to wondering about other historic figures and how tall they were. As is often the case, when I get curious, you get to benefit from my questions.

So how tall were the people from our past?

The general who led us through the Revolutionary War and who later become the first President of the United States, George Washington, stood at 6’2” tall. His wife, Martha, was a mere 5’ tall.

Martha and George Washington

Our 16^thPresident, Abraham Lincoln, was the tallest of our nation’s leaders, topping the height scale at 6’4” tall. His wife Mary Todd Lincoln, was another slight-of-stature woman at 5’2”.

Mary Todd Lincoln and President Abraham Lincoln

Interestingly, our shortest president was the fourth, James Madison, who stood only 5’4” tall, but was “dwarfed” by his above-average wife, Dolley, who stood 5’7” tall.

President James Madison and his tall wife Dolley.

General Robert E. Lee, who led the Confederate Army during the Civil War, stood 5’8” tall.

General Robert E. Lee

General Ulysses S. Grant, who led the Union forces in the same war—then went on to become our 18^thpresident—also topped out at 5’8”. 

General Ulysses S. Grant

Famed Old West lawman Wyatt Earp stood 6’ tall.

Lawman Wyatt Earp

Wild Bill Hickok, who worked many jobs in the Old West, including soldier, spy, wagon master, lawman, gunfighter, and actor, among other things, had a height of 6’ even.

Wild Bill Hickok

Martha Jane Canary, better known as Calamity Jane, doesn’t have a recorded height that I could find, but she was tall for a woman, strong like a man, and quite a character in every sense of the word.

Martha Jane Canary, also known as
Calamity Jane

Western sharpshooter, Annie Oakley, was all of 5’ tall.

Annie Oakley, famed sharshooter

What about more recent historical figures?

Longest-serving president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who presided over the country when Pearl Harbor was attacked, stood 6’2” tall, though few got to see his impressive height. He was stricken with polio, rendering him paralyzed from the waist down. He served as president from a wheelchair, the only disabled president of our country.

President Franklin D Roosevelt

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the second World War was a mere 5’6”.

Winston Churchill

I found conflicting reports on Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazis during World War II, which said he was 5’8 or 5’9”.

Adolf Hitler

Five-star general Douglas MacArthur, who played a major role in the Pacific theater of World War II, was 6’ tall. Emperor Hirohito, who was leader of Japan during the Occupation of Japan, stood 5’5”.

General Douglas MacArthur standing next to
Japanese Emperor Hirohito

And since our current president, Donald Trump, and his wife Melania, just visited England and met with the Queen, I thought I’d look up their respective heights. Donald Trump is 6’3”. Melania is 5’11”. And Queen Elizabeth of England is 5’4” tall. I found the photos taken during that visit to be cute. (Due to copyright laws, I can’t repost, but you can see them here).

It’s Your Turn:

Do you enjoy knowing the heights of historical figures? Why or why not?

Jennifer Uhlarikdiscovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list numerous times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.

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1875—Virginia City, Nevada: A short, urgent letter mentioning his childhood love, Millie Gordon, forces deaf Travis McCaffrey to turn to his estranged birth father for help rescuing the woman he can’t forget.

Billy the Kid and a Giveaway

By Nancy J. Farrier

Only known photo of Billy the Kid

Historical figure, Billy the Kid, sparked imaginations all over the world. Many people who grew up in the era of westerns might remember hearing about William Bonney, also known as Billy the Kid, and his prowess with a gun. Today, many young people have never heard of this legendary figure.

Although some facts of his early life are sketchy, Billy the Kid is thought to have been born in 1859 to Catherine McCarty, an Irish immigrant. Henry McCarty (Billy the Kid) lived at that time in New York City in the slums. Little is known about Henry’s family. He possibly had two siblings, an older sister and a younger brother. Although his mother is mentioned in some of the old records, the whereabouts of his father has been lost.

In 1873, Henry’s mother married William Antrim in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She developed tuberculosis and the family moved to Silver City for the better climate and the mining. Henry’s mother lived only a few months after that.

Henry had his first brush with the law in 1875. He was arrested for acting as a lookout while his cohort stole money and guns. Henry was charged with larceny and incarcerated, but he shimmied up a chimney and escaped. The next day the town newspaper ran the first of many articles that would be written about Billy the Kid.

Henry traveled to Camp Grant, Arizona looking for work. Here he is first referred to as the ‘Kid,’ possibly because of his youth. In 1877, Henry Antrim, alias Kid, is arrested again, this time for horse stealing. While his guards attended a dance, the Kid sliped from his shackles and escaped once again.

Billy the Kid, Dick Brewer, Regulators

Later that year, Henry changed his name to William H. Bonney. He is arrested for being in possession of stolen horses, animals belonging to cattleman John Tunstall. When he is released from jail, Bonney is hired by Tunstall as a cowboy and a gunman.

In February 1878, Tunstall left his ranch with Billy the Kid and four other men to take some horses to Lincoln. On the way, they met a posse sent to arrest Tunstall. When Tunstall approached the posse, he was shot and killed. This is the incident that started the famous Lincoln County War.

Tunstall’s foreman, Dick Brewer, is appointed to gather a posse to go after the men who killed Tunstall. Brewer forms the Regulators, a group that includes Billy the Kid. For the next few months Billy and the other Regulators tracked down the men responsible for Tunstall’s death. At one point, Billy and the Regulators were hiding in a corral and ambushed the Sheriff responsible for Tunstall’s death. They also killed one of his deputies. Billy was shot in the leg, but managed to escape. At this point, Billy is still only nineteen years old.

1876 Gatling Gun

In July of 1878, the Army stepped in to settle the Lincoln County war. They bring in a rapid-fire Gatling gun, plenty of ammunition and a howitzer. The Regulators were holed up in a house. The Army turned their guns on the house threatening to open fire. The Sheriff set the house on fire, demanding the Regulators surrender. Billy tried to create a diversion by running, but wasn't successful. Most of the Regulators died in the firefight, referred to as “the big killing.”

On the one year anniversary of Tunstall’s death, Billy and four other men met

Pat Garrett

with Jimmy Dolan, one of the men they've been hunting, and some of his men in the middle of a street. The meeting almost turned violent, but they do end up shaking hands and agreed to end the war. This followed a proclamation by the Governor declaring amnesty for all parties involved in the Lincoln County war.

Billy the kid wrote a letter to the Governor, stating, "I have no wish to fight any more. Indeed I have not raised an arm since your proclamation. As to my character, I refer to any of the citizens, for the majority of them are my friends and have been helping me all they could. I am called Kid Antrim but Antrim is my stepfathers name. Waiting for an annser I remain your obedeint servant."

Billy the Kid's Grave

For the next three years, Billy can’t seem to stay out of trouble. He mets with notorious outlaw Jesse James. After he murdered another man, Pat Garrett tracks him down and kills him. Billy the Kid, famous outlaw, convicted murderer, and friend to many, was only twenty-one years old at his death.

As of 2012, Billy the Kid had the record for having the most films made about him. Have you ever seen any of these movies? Have you ever read about Billy the Kid? Please leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for the book listed below. 

I am giving away a copy of my newest release, The Timeless Love Romance Collection. "Journey along as men and women emerge triumphantly out of their challenges and into romances that bolster their faith in nine historical novellas." Please leave a comment to be entered to win this collection that releases August 1st, 2015.

Nancy J Farrier is an award winning author who lives in Southern California in the Mojave Desert. She loves the Southwest with its interesting historical past. Nancy and her husband have five children and one grandson. When Nancy isn’t writing, she loves to read, do needlecraft, play with her cats, and spend time with her family. Nancy is represented by Karen Ball of The Steve Laube Literary Agency. You can read more about Nancy and her books on her website: nancyjfarrier.com.

Croquet in the Wild West?

by Linda Farmer Harris

Sorry, Janet, but Croquet is the nearest thing to golf I'll ever get. Janet Chester Bly wrote a HH&H blog "A Little Golf Lesson" - http://www.hhhistory.com/2014/07/a-little-golf-lesson.html and I gave some serious thought to learning the game. On our ranch, we have rolling hills, water hazards, trees and thickets, sand traps, and gopher holes. What more could a golfer want? 

However, I decided that if I was going to knock a ball around a few acres, I wanted to go big or go home. Croquet would have to be my game.

As kids, we tried to play croquet in the sandy front yard of our southeast New Mexico home, but it was a battle more than a game. The balls bogged down in the sand and the mallet strikes sent the dirt flying in all directions along with the hoops. That was the first time I dreamed about having a real grass-covered lawn; one set aside specifically for Croquet.

We used a simple field pattern that came with the game until my brother made some more hoops (wickets) out of mother's wire coat hangers. The game really got wild then.

I remember seeing a couple of Croquet sets in the high school gym, but never saw anyone playing. A few years after I graduated, the game became really popular on both the east and west coasts. The game became more sophisticated with colored wickets to help chart the course and different shot techniques.

Years ago, I was told that Billy the Kid played croquet in the Capitan Mountain of the New Mexico Territory. Would Billy really chase a ball around yard with a mallet? I doubted that since it was pictured as an eastern garden party game to encourage women to "get outside in the sunshine." Croquet is still considered to be one of the few outdoor sports in which women can complete on an equal footing with men.

In April, 2015, Wild West magazine backed up that claim with a Circa-1880 tintype of William Henry McCarty (Bonney, Antrim) a.k.a Billy the Kid holding a croquet mallet. The first picture is of Tom O'Folliard (left) and Billy. The second picture is the total setting of the isolated photo. Randy Guijarro of Fresno, California, is the owner of the tintype. The WW article states that tintypes are mirror images, so Billy is actually holding the mallet in his right hand, not his left.

Photo courtesy of Randy Guijarro and Wild West magazine

Photo courtesy of Randy Guijarro and Wild West magazine

Croquet goes back as far as the 1300's. It's thought to have been an in-door type of lawn-bowling for inclement weather or confined spaces. It was moved outside in better weather. In medieval France, Croquet was called "Paille-maille." It's reported that a French doctor changed the rules, called the game Croquet after the crooked stick used to hit balls through wickets, and recommended it for the health of his patients. It's called Crooky in Ireland.

The game came to North America in the early 1860s and was introduced in the 1900 Paris games as an Olympic sport. In the USA, three forms of the game are played, American Six Wicket Croquet, American Nine Wicket Croquet, and International Association Croquet.

Many well-known companies such as Milton Bradley and A. G. Spalding & Bros. published rule handbooks and manuals.

Milton Bradley & Co. Croquet Rule Book

A.G. Spadling & Bros. Croquet Manual

If you thought mallet and wicket were the only terms you needed to know to play a friendly game of Croquet, check out one of the many glossaries of terms, such as the Glossary of Croquet Terms - Rules of American Croquet - http://www.croquetamerica.com/croquet/rules/american/glossary.php

Lynn Colement mentioned Table Croquet in her HH&H blog "Tidbits About Board Games" -  http://www.hhhistory.com/2014/12/tidbits-about-board-games.html
That's very appealing today because of the multiple days of rain and mud.

Table Croquet

During my research, I found Golf Croquet, a greatly simplified version of Association Croquet, which has a large following in many countries. Maybe I'm going to be into golf after all. Find out more about Golf Croquet Rules for Toequet and Malletball at http://www.toequet.com/rules.html.

Golf Croquet

There are many variations of Croquet — Xtreme Malletball, Toequet, Pirates, Guerilla, Malletball, Poison, and Wicket — apparently something for everyone.

Are you a Croquet player? Have you given your children/grandchildren their own mini-set?

Blessings,

Lin and her husband live a ranch in Chimney Rock, Colorado. She writes historical fiction for adults and children. Her enjoyment of genealogy and family history adds unique elements to her stories.

General Lew Wallace ~ A Most Interesting Man

by Ramona K. Cecil

General Lew Wallace

One of my favorite movies growing up was Ben Hur. I first saw it as a child at a drive-in movie theater from the back seat of a 1956 Chevy while on summer vacation with my family. What I didn’t learn until years later was that the author of that story was a fellow Hoosier, and, arguably, one of the most interesting men of the nineteenth century.

 

Best known for his famous novel about the life of Christ, Wallace is said to have rather been known for his military career during the Mexican-American War and the Civil War.

 

 

 

 

Born in 1827 in Brookville, Indiana—about 80 miles west of where I live—Lewis Wallace was the second of four sons born to David Wallace, a military man, lawyer, and politician. A graduate of West Point Military Academy, Lew’s father went on to serve in Indiana’s General Assembly, as the state’s lieutenant governor, governor, and then as a member of the U.S. Congress.

 

From an early age, Lew’s life seemed set on a similar path as his father’s. At sixteen he left his formal education to make his own way in the world and joined a local militia. When he was nineteen, the Mexican War broke out and Lew established a recruiting office for the Marion Volunteers in Indianapolis. Though he never saw combat, Lew served under General Zachary Taylor and earned the rank of first lieutenant.

 

Mexican-American War

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Wallace

 

 

 

After the war he returned to Indiana and married Susan Arnold Elston, who later became an author in her own right. Lew began a career in the law and was elected prosecuting attorney of Indiana’s 1st congressional district, but the military remained a large part of his life. In 1860, with another war looming, he organized the Crawfordsville Guards Independent Militia and adopted for them the colorful Zouave uniform patterned after the uniform of the French Army in Algeria.

 

Zouaves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the Civil War broke out, Wallace’s militia became the 11th Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was mustered into the Union Army with now Colonel Lew Wallace in command.

 

 

During the war Wallace rose to the rank of Major General, winning acclaim in several battles including that of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, and Monocacy. But sadly, Wallace became most noted for a costly blunder during the battle of Shiloh. Though he blamed the error on miscommunication, the stain it left on his military service was never fully expunged.

 

Battle of Fort Donelson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                          

Battle of Shiloh

 

 

 

                                                                    

 

 

 

 

Near the end of the war, Wallace served in Texas near the Rio Grand and was involved in discussing proposals dealing with the surrender of the Confederate Army in the Southwest. He was also appointed to the military commissions that investigated the Lincoln assassination conspirators and Henry Wirz, commandant of Andersonville, the notorious Confederate prisoner-of-war camp. After the war, General Wallace even found time to run down to Mexico and help the Mexican army expel Maximilian’s French occupation forces.

 



Civil War Military Commission

French Mexican War



     

Henry Wirz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 With that accomplished, Wallace returned to his law practice in Indiana, but the law held no appeal for him, so he turned to writing and, like his father before him, to politics. After two unsuccessful bids for a seat in Congress, he was appointed governor of the New Mexico Territory. There he worked to end Apache raids on settlers and resolve the Lincoln County War, a violent range war, during which, he became acquainted with such historic figures as Billy the Kid and sheriff Pat Garrett, the man who eventually killed the young outlaw. It was during Wallace’s time in the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe that he completed his novel, Ben Hur.

Lew Wallace, Governor of New Mexico

Billy the Kid

Sheriff Pat Garrett

                              

You might think that at this point Lew Wallace had accomplished enough to fill a couple of life times, but the general was not done yet.

In 1881, at the age of 54, Wallace was appointed U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople, Turkey, a position he held until 1885.

 

Lew Wallace and Sultan Abdul Hamid II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wallace had dabbled in writing fiction from his teen years, having begun his first novel The Fair God at the age of seventeen. The work was not published until thirty years later.

 

 

Robert G. Ingersoll

Indifferent to religion, Wallace generally believed in the “Christian conception of God.” It was an incident on a train ride to Indianapolis in 1876 that caused him to more closely examine his beliefs and subsequently led him to write Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ. On the train he met Robert G. Ingersoll, a well-known agnostic lecturer. After a lengthy debate with the man about religious ideology, Wallace felt the need to fully research Christianity so as to clarify in his own mind, his beliefs. Four years later Ben Hur, one of ten books written by Wallace, was published by Harper & Brothers and is considered “the most influential Christian book of the nineteenth century.” The story has been dramatized in stage plays and several Hollywood movies including the best known; the 1959 adaptation starring Charlton Heston.

 

Poster for 1901 Stage Play

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Hur Movie Poster 1925

Ben Hur Movie Poster 1959

 

                   

 

                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To cap off his incredible life and accomplishments, Wallace patented several inventions, built a seven-story apartment building in Indianapolis, and drew up plans for a private study for his Crawfordsville, Indiana home. At the outbreak of the Spanish American War, when Wallace was seventy-one, he tried to enlist and offered his services to raise and lead a military force, but was rejected because of his age.

                                            

Lew Wallace Study and Museum, Crawfordsville, Indiana

Blancherne Apartments

 

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lew Wallace Home, Crawfordsville, Indiana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lew Wallace Grave, Oak Hill Cemetery, Crawfordsville, Indiana

General Lew Wallace died February 15, 1905 at his home in Crawfordsville, Indiana, and is buried in Crawfordsville’s Oak Hill Cemetery. The state of Indiana commissioned a marble statue of Wallace in military uniform for the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington D.C.

 

Marble Statue of Lew Wallace
Statuary Hall, Washington D. C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many would consider a life that held a third of what Lew Wallace accomplished a life well lived. To my mind, the Dos Equis man has nothing on Indiana’s General Lew Wallace; definitely a most interesting man.

 

 

 

 

 

Ramona K. Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories in her home state of Indiana.

Check out her website at www.ramonakcecil.com