Five months later, he took part in the Union victories at the Battle of Fort Henry (February 6, 1862) and the Battle of Fort Donelson (February 11 to February 16, 1862). Brigadier General to Major GeneralĪuthorities promoted Wallace to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers on September 3, 1861. Wallace reenlisted when the unit reorganized as a three-year regiment and the army assigned him to duty in the West. At the end of the enlistment period, the regiment mustered out at Indianapolis, Indiana on August 2, 1861. Wallace’s unit served primarily in Virginia, where it won a small battle at Romney on June 13. On April 12, Wallace received a field appointment as a colonel in the 11th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with a three-month enlistment period. Wallace served in that position long enough to raise Indiana’s quota of troops established by the federal government’s first call for volunteers. Morton appointed Wallace as Adjutant General of Indiana in April 1861. When the American Civil War began, Governor Oliver P. In 1856, voters elected Wallace to the Indiana Senate, where he served four years. The couple produced one child during their marriage of over fifty years. On May 6, 1852, Wallace married Susan Arnold Elston, a talented writer, and musician. He passed the Indiana bar exam in 1849 and established a law practice in Covington, Indiana. LawyerĪfter the Mexican-American War, Wallace returned to Indiana and studied law. When the conflict ended, Wallace mustered out of volunteer service on June 14, 1847.

His men elected him as a second lieutenant in Company H of the 1st Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and he served near the Rio Grande River. Three years later, when the Mexican-American War began, nineteen-year-old Wallace raised a company of troops for volunteer service. At age sixteen years, he received employment as a clerk and then struck out on his own. Mexican-American Warĭuring his youth, Wallace attended common schools in Indiana but did not demonstrate much interest in academics. Two years later, his father married Zerelda Gray Sanders Wallace, who raised the orphaned boys. Wallace’s mother died a few months after Wallace’s seventh birthday. Lew Wallace’s father was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, the sixth Governor of Indiana, and a United States Congressman. He was the second of four sons of David Wallace and Esther French Test Wallace. Lewis Wallace was born in Brookville, Indiana on April 10, 1827.

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