The Interesting Life of Lew Wallace--Part 1

There are some people who lead the most interesting and varied lives. Lew Wallace was one of those people. In his 77 years of life, he had the opportunity to do a great many things—some for which he was praised, others for which he was panned, and at least one which we still enjoy today. So who was Lew Wallace, and what were his contributions to the world? Let me tell you.

Student

Lew Wallace (1827-1905) was one of four sons born to lawyer and West Point

Wallace in his 20s, circa 1853

graduate David Wallace and his wife Esther. Lew was quickly labeled as a discipline problem in school, and as such, he was put in various schools around his home state of Indiana. However, he was talented in drawing, loved to read, and at the age of thirteen, one of his teachers noticed his ability with writing and encouraged him in it. Just three years later, Lew’s father refused to pay for any further schooling for the young man, so Lew took a job copying records, and by age nineteen, was studying law in his father’s law office.

Military Man, Part One—Mexican-American War

It was at this time, the Mexican-American War broke out, and Lew left his studies to serve in the army of Zachary Taylor, though he never saw action. Instead, he served as regimental adjutant—an administrative position. This lasted just days shy of one year, and he mustered out to carry on with his life in other areas.

Newspaper Service

Lew returned to Indiana to practice law and start a newspaper, The Grand Democratic Free Soil Banner. The Free Soil Party was a short-lived political party based almost completely on the idea of preventing the expansion of slavery into the western territories, and the newspaper was meant to support the candidates of that party—namely Martin Van Buren and Charles F. Adams (the son of John Quincy Adams). The Free Soil party received absolutely no electoral votes in the election of 1848, and it eventually became a part of the Republican party at its inception a few years later.

The Grand Democratic Free Soil Banner

First Foray Into Politics

Wallace did become a lawyer in 1849 and also served a two-year term in the Indiana Senate in 1856—at his age 29. I’ve found little information about his time in Indiana politics, though he came by it naturally. His father was politically minded, having served as the sixth governor of the state.

Military Man, Part Two—The Civil War Years

Wallace could not ignore the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861. He joined the Union soon after that news broke and was given the position of Adjutant General of Indiana, but he took that position on the condition that he would be given a command of his own. So once he’d recruited the men to fill all six regimental units, a quota he met in one week’s time, he took command of the 11^th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment with the rank of Colonel. He distinguished himself in minor battles, and by September 1861, he was elevated to the rank of Brigadier General of U.S. Army Volunteers and given a brigade to lead.

At the battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862, Wallace broke orders and went to support his fellow soldiers when their lines appeared to be breaking. His actions shored up the weaknesses and prevented the advancement of the Confederates. Due to these quick-thinking movements, Wallace was elevated to the rank of Major General. Just 34 years old, he was the youngest man in the Union Army to achieve that rank.

Wallace During the Civil War

However, his moment of praise was cut short. During the Battle of Shiloh on about two months later, he was plagued by controversy. General Grant asserted for many years that he told Wallace to take his troops up one road but that Wallace chose another road, delaying his arrival and nearly costing the Union the battle. Shiloh was a Union victory, but a costly one with many lives lost and much blood spilled. For many years, General Grant blamed Lew Wallace for that fact. He was even relegated to administrative and non-combat positions for two years. Wallace categorically denied the accusations, saying that his orders were followed. It wasn’t until the 1880s when Grant wrote his memoirs that information came to light through a letter penned and sent to one of the wives the day before the Battle of Shiloh that Wallace told the truth. Only then did Grant seem to backtrack on his assertions that Wallace messed up, and instead, stated that perhaps the soldier who transcribed his written orders wrote it wrong. But even with that backpedaling by Grant all those years later, Lew Wallace still went to the end of his life feeling he carried an unwarranted shame and stigma for the events at Shiloh.

~To Be Continued on October 25, 2020~

It’s Your Turn: Have you heard of Lew Wallace? As you can see by just the first 34 years of his life, he’d already had a bunch of fascinating experiences. Which piece of his life that I’ve presented in today’s post was most interesting to you?

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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One woman with a deep desire to serve and help. One brave who will stop at nothing to save his people. Each willing to die for their beliefs and love for one another. Will their sacrifice be enough?

As a female medical doctor in 1864, Sadie Hoppner is no stranger to tragedy and loss. While she grapples with the difficulties of practicing medicine at a Colorado outpost, she learns that finding acceptance and respect proves especially difficult at Fort Lyon.

Cheyenne brave Five Kills wants peace between his people and theAmerican Army. But a chance encounter with their female doctor ignites memories from his upbringing among the whites … along with a growing fondness for the one person who seems to understand him and his people.As two cultures collide with differing beliefs of right and wrong, of what constitutes justice and savagery, blood spills on the Great Plains.When the inevitable war reaches Fort Lyon, the young couple's fledgling love is put to the test.

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