Wallace, Lew (1827-1905), was an American author, diplomat, lawyer, and military leader. He is best known for his historical novel Ben-Hur (1880), which tells of the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.
Lewis Wallace was born on April 10, 1827, in Brookville, Indiana. He was an officer in the Mexican War (1846-1848). He later practiced law and was elected to the Indiana Senate in 1856. Wallace rose to the rank of major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-1865). In 1862, his troops captured Fort Donelson, Tennessee, weakening Confederate defenses. Wallace’s bravery in delaying the advance of Confederate General Jubal A. Early’s troops at Monocacy River helped prevent the capture of Washington, D.C., in 1864.
Wallace was a member of the court in 1865 that tried those involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. From 1878 to 1881, Wallace was governor of the territory of New Mexico. He served as United States minister to the Ottoman Empire from 1881 to 1885. Since 1910, a statue of him has stood in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. He died on Feb. 15, 1905.
