★ ★  Wallace, Lewis

Lewis “Lew” Wallace

:us34stars:
Wallace 3.jpg


Born: April 10, 1827

Birthplace: Brookville, Indiana

Father: Governor David Wallace 1799 – 1859
(Buried: Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana)​

Mother: Esther French Test 1806 – 1834
(Buried: Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana)​

Wife: Susan Arnold Elston 1830 – 1907
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Crawfordsville, Indiana)​

Married: May 6, 1852

Children:


Henry Lane Wallace 1853 – 1926​
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Crawfordsville, Indiana)​

Occupation before War:

Copyist for Marion County, Indiana, Clerk’s Office​
Served in the Marion Rifles militia in Marion Co., Indiana​
1846 – 1847: Served in Mexican – American War Adjutant and 1st Lt.​
Half Owner and Editor of The Free-Soil Banner Newspaper
Attorney in Covington, Indiana​
1851 – 1853: Prosecuting Attorney for 1st Congressional District​
Attorney in Crawfordsville, Indiana​
Indiana State Senator​
Organizer of Crawfordsville Guards, Independent Militia​
1859 – 1860: Adopted the Zouave Uniform for his men​

Civil War Career:
Wallace 2.jpg


1861: Helped to recruit volunteers in Indiana for the Union Army​
1861: Adjutant General for the State of Indiana​
1861: Colonel of 11th Indiana Volunteers Infantry Regiment​
1861: Served in the Battle of Romney, Western Virginia​
1861 – 1862: Brigadier General, Union Army, Infantry​
1862: Served in the Battle of Forts Henry and Donelson​
1862 – 1865: Major General, Union Army, Infantry​
1862: Served in the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee​
1862: Commander of Camp Chase Prisoner of War Camp​
1862 – 1863: In charge of commission to investigate Don Carlos Buell​
1863: Helped protect the railroad junction at North Vernon, Indiana​
1864: Union Army Commander at the Battle of Monocacy, Maryland​
1865: Sent to investigate Confederate Military on Rio Grande​
1865: Discussed proposals for Trans – Mississippi to Surrender​
1865: Member of Military Commission to investigate Conspirators​
1865: Head of commission to investigate Henry Wirtz​
1865: Resigned from the Union Army on November 30th

Occupation after War:

1865 – 1867: Major General in the Mexican Army​
1868: Unsuccessful Candidate for U.S. Congressman​
1870: Unsuccessful Candidate for U.S. Congressman​
1873: Author of The Fair God
1876: Supporter of Rutherford B. Hayes for President​
1878 – 1881: Governor of New Mexico Territory​
1880: Author of Ben – Hur: A Tale of the Christ
1881 – 1885: United States Minister to Ottoman Empire​
1893: Author of The Prince of India or Why Constantinople Fell
Wrote a biography of President Benjamin Harrison​
1895: Had surgery on a malignant ulcer on his nose​
1898: Author of The Wooing of Malkatoon
1898: Offered to raise soldiers and lead them Spanish American War​
1901 – 1902: Required surgeries on his nose​
1904: Had trouble assimilating food and his nutritional level declined​
1904 – 1905: Suffered from a difficult walking and stopped working​

Died: February 15, 1905

Place of Death: Crawfordsville, Indiana

Cause of Death: Atrophy of the stomach

Age at time of Death: 77 years old

Burial Place: Oak Hill Cemetery, Crawfordsville, Indiana
 
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Lew Wallace's CW career and reputation was badly tarnished by Grant for Wallace's delayed-show at Shiloh, even though there are conflicting stories as to how Wallace ended up on the wrong road leading to support Sherman's Division. This might have been another instance where Grant threw one of his officers under the bus.
 
Wanted to direct y’all to a great site I read often. Longform.org is a free literary site which showcases quality global magazine articles you may not have previously encountered. I was reading one article today, and decided to try their “tags” feature to search under Archives. I typed in “Civil War” as a tag, and got several articles on civil wars in foreign countries, etc. as well as a few intriguing ones on our own Civil War.
Here’s an excerpt of one on Gen. Lew Wallace, from Slate Magazine in 2013:

63355FA1-0894-4E29-B174-8F5DB899F9F3.jpeg

and a sample page from it:
6CFF12D3-12BB-459D-9B5B-15F35694557C.jpeg

Here is the original longform.org website, and the steps I mentioned earlier ( instead of “tags”, you could use the Search mode, if you were very specific).

140BE340-C926-4672-8E5F-E9D909F01A46.jpeg
 
Lew Wallace's CW career and reputation was badly tarnished by Grant for Wallace's delayed-show at Shiloh, even though there are conflicting stories as to how Wallace ended up on the wrong road leading to support Sherman's Division. This might have been another instance where Grant threw one of his officers under the bus.
I respectfully disagree. After a recent thread here, I'm convinced Wallace misunderstood the orders. He was ordered to Pittsburg Landing, not to the right of Sherman. And he compounded the mistake by not even attempting to communicate his movements to Grant.

Grant eventually reconciled with Wallace, but the Shiloh delay was a screw-up on the part of Wallace.
 
I respectfully disagree. After a recent thread here, I'm convinced Wallace misunderstood the orders. He was ordered to Pittsburg Landing, not to the right of Sherman. And he compounded the mistake by not even attempting to communicate his movements to Grant.

Grant eventually reconciled with Wallace, but the Shiloh delay was a screw-up on the part of Wallace.

I will have to look at this again more closely. I've read conflicting accounts about who or what may have been responsible for the problems with Wallace's movements at Shiloh and as noted, cannot determine with real confidence whether it was Wallace or something else.
 
What exactly were the Orders? I've always understood that Wallace was to proceed to Pittsburg Landing. Then it somehow became an "order" to take a position next to Sherman? It sounds like Wallace just followed his first order maybe?
 
What exactly were the Orders? I've always understood that Wallace was to proceed to Pittsburg Landing. Then it somehow became an "order" to take a position next to Sherman? It sounds like Wallace just followed his first order maybe?
We don't know the exact wording of the orders, but the person in the best position to know was Rawlins, because he took the verbal order from Grant and then dictated it to the messenger, Baxter.

This is how Rawlins described the wording of the order:
Major-General Wallace :
You will move forward your division from Crump's Landing, leaving a sufficient force to protect the public property at that place, to Pittsburg Landing, on the road nearest to and parallel with the river, and form in line at right angles with the river, immediately in rear of the camp of Maj. Gen. C. F. Smith's division on our right, and there await further orders.


So Wallace was to march his division to Pittsburg Landing, to a position in reserve and await further orders. This makes sense because at best, it would take Wallace a couple hours to arrive and Grant wouldn't know ahead of time where Wallace would be needed in the line.

Wallace apparently interpreted it that he was to take a position in the line to the right of Sherman, at right angles to the river. But at the time Grant issued the order, the land to the right of Sherman was swampy bottom land that no one was fighting over, and the "right angle to the river" would not have made sense a couple miles from the landing.

To make matters worse, Wallace did not stay at Crumps Landing, where Grant had last saw him, to receive the messenger. So it took at least an hour longer to get the order into Wallace's hands.

As mentioned, Wallace then made no attempt to communicate with Grant his progress, route, or his understanding of his orders.

Here's the thread where this was recently discussed:

 
We don't know the exact wording of the orders, but the person in the best position to know was Rawlins, because he took the verbal order from Grant and then dictated it to the messenger, Baxter.

This is how Rawlins described the wording of the order:
Major-General Wallace :
You will move forward your division from Crump's Landing, leaving a sufficient force to protect the public property at that place, to Pittsburg Landing, on the road nearest to and parallel with the river, and form in line at right angles with the river, immediately in rear of the camp of Maj. Gen. C. F. Smith's division on our right, and there await further orders.


So Wallace was to march his division to Pittsburg Landing, to a position in reserve and await further orders. This makes sense because at best, it would take Wallace a couple hours to arrive and Grant wouldn't know ahead of time where Wallace would be needed in the line.

Wallace apparently interpreted it that he was to take a position in the line to the right of Sherman, at right angles to the river. But at the time Grant issued the order, the land to the right of Sherman was swampy bottom land that no one was fighting over, and the "right angle to the river" would not have made sense a couple miles from the landing.

To make matters worse, Wallace did not stay at Crumps Landing, where Grant had last saw him, to receive the messenger. So it took at least an hour longer to get the order into Wallace's hands.

As mentioned, Wallace then made no attempt to communicate with Grant his progress, route, or his understanding of his orders.

Here's the thread where this was recently discussed:

I still think that there may have been justifiable confusion on Wallace's part and there is a lot of uncertainty about precisely what orders Wallace received and when. My main criticism of Wallace on April 6 is his brick-headed decision once he was alerted to what was going on and that if he continued on the same route he would run smack into Johnston's forces. Aware of the emergency and that time was of the essence, he should have simply faced his division in the other direction and started towards PL by the correct route. Instead, he insisted that the marching order remain the same and he blew off significant time so that his lead unit could move to what was now the van instead of the rear.

Then there are the fabrications in his autobiography about warning Grant on April 3/4 about an attack at PL. But that's a story for another time.
 
Wanted to direct y’all to a great site I read often. Longform.org is a free literary site which showcases quality global magazine articles you may not have previously encountered. I was reading one article today, and decided to try their “tags” feature to search under Archives. I typed in “Civil War” as a tag, and got several articles on civil wars in foreign countries, etc. as well as a few intriguing ones on our own Civil War.
Here’s an excerpt of one on Gen. Lew Wallace, from Slate Magazine in 2013:

View attachment 364022
and a sample page from it:
View attachment 364025
Here is the original longform.org website, and the steps I mentioned earlier ( instead of “tags”, you could use the Search mode, if you were very specific).

View attachment 364026

Is disgraced a bit of a harsh description ? That website looks great.
 
The Lew Wallace Study and Museum in Crawfordsville, IN was a nice relaxing early morning visit for me five years ago. In a residential area, the property has well maintained flower beds. An interpretive center is in the carriage house with a film about Lew Wallace, changing exhibits, and a gift shop. Tours are available in the General’s Study, a stand alone building. The furnishings and architectural details are quite interesting.

I checked the website and the museum has reopened. The link to the site: https://www.ben-hur.com/
 
Ben-Hur has been called “the most influential Christian book of the 19th century”. But seems I recall reading that Wallace was not particularly religious. Is this correct?
 
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