Wallace, Lewis

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Lewis Wallace
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Siblings
    1
    No. of Spouses
    1
    Family
    David Wallace (father), Esther French Test (mother), Susan Arnold Elston (wife, 1856)
    Occupation
    Military
    Attorney or Judge
    Journalist
    Writer or Artist
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Whig
    Free Soil
    Republican
    Other
    Other Political Party
    People's Party
    Government
    Diplomat
    Other state government
    Military
    US military (Pre-Civil War)
    Union Army
     

    Lew Wallace (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    When the war broke out, Wallace was named adjutant general for Indiana. Within a week he more than doubled the state's quota for regiments in camp and was made colonel of the Eleventh Indiana, a Zouave regiment. He was promoted to brigadier general in September 1861 and to major general in March 1862, after his important service at the capture of Fort Donelson. This rapid rise in the military hierarchy was amply justified by Wallace's energy as an officer, decisiveness in command, and concern for his troops. Unfortunately, in the next important combat in which he was engaged, the battle of Shiloh, his actions as commander of two brigades in support of General William T. Sherman's flank at Stony Lonesome were somewhat ambiguous; he may have been dilatory in marching his troops. Long after the battle, and perhaps for political reasons, Wallace was criticized by General Henry Halleck, temporarily losing his command on two occasions. Both times his command was restored, once by President Abraham Lincoln, once by General Ulysses S. Grant, but there can be no doubt that the ensuing scandal bothered him for the rest of his life. In his last years Wallace persisted in attempting to convince the Shiloh National Military Park Commission that his version of the events of the battle was the correct one. In any event, his later service in the war was blameless.
    Herbert F. Smith, "Wallace, Lew," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-01707.html.
    Date Event
    In Paducah, Kentucky, Union officers clash over the treatment of a local secessionist
    - In Tennessee, Union forces surround Fort Donelson and begin probing attacks
    In Tennessee, Union troops reinforce the siege of Fort Donelson, while gunboats attack from the river
    In Tennessee, Confederate troops attempt a full-scale break out from the siege of Fort Donelson
    In Tennessee, General Grant forces Fort Donelson's "unconditional and immediate" surrender
    Massed Confederate forces attack the Union's Army of the Tennessee at Pittsburg Landing
    At Pittsburg Landing, Union reinforcements turn the tide on the second day of the Battle of Shiloh
    In Washington, the officers of the military court for John Wilkes Booth's accused fellow plotters are named
    In Washington, membership of the military court for John Wilkes Booth's accused fellow plotters is adjusted
    In Washington, the accused Lincoln Assassination plotters all plead not guilty before their military court
    In Washington's Old Penitentiary, the taking of evidence in the Lincoln conspiracy trial begins
    - In Washington's Old Penitentiary, the taking of evidence in the Lincoln conspiracy trial continues
    In Washington's Old Penitentiary, the taking of evidence in the Lincoln conspiracy trial concludes
    - In Washington's Old Penitentiary, final arguments are being made in the Lincoln conspiracy trial
    In Washington's Old Penitentiary, the Commission in the Lincoln conspiracy trial begin their deliberations
    In Washington, President Andrew Johnson approves the sentences passed down to the Lincoln conspirators
    In Washington's Old Penitentiary, the Lincoln conspirators are told their fate in their cells
    Henry Wirz, former commandant of the Andersonville prison camp, goes on trial in Washington
    - At the Capitol, the trial of Henry Wirz, former Andersonville prison commandant, continues in Washington
    Henry Wirz, former commandant of the Andersonville prison camp, is executed in Washington, D.C.
    How to Cite This Page: "Wallace, Lewis," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/12202.