Lew Wallace came to the Civil War with a reputation already earned. A veteran of the Mexican-American War, he was appointed colonel of the 11th Indiana Infantry at the outbreak of the conflict and quickly found himself in the thick of the Western Theater’s early campaigns. His first taste of major command came under Ulysses S. Grant during the operations against Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in early 1862.
At Fort Henry he saw little combat, but at Fort Donelson he proved his worth. When Confederate forces launched a counterattack against the Union lines, Wallace directed a decisive response that helped turn the tide. His performance earned him a promotion to major general. But the same war that raised him would soon nearly destroy his career.
At the Battle of Shiloh, Grant’s army was caught off guard by a massive Confederate assault on the morning of April 6, 1862. The Union forces were pushed back toward the Tennessee River, and Grant sent word to Wallace to bring his division forward to reinforce the beleaguered army. What followed became one of the most disputed episodes of the war. Wallace marched his men along what he believed was the correct route, only to discover that he had moved behind Confederate lines.
He then turned his command around and marched back to reach Grant’s army, arriving too late to take part in the first day’s fighting. The confusion over orders, the delay, and the heavy losses suffered by the Union army that day produced a storm of blame. Many placed the responsibility for the near-disaster on Wallace. He was removed from Grant’s army, his military reputation in tatters.
Yet Wallace’s most consequential moment in the war came later, under very different circumstances. By the summer of 1864, the Confederacy was on the defensive in most theaters, but in the Shenandoah Valley, Confederate General Jubal Early was on the move. With a sizable force, Early crossed the Potomac and threatened Washington, D. C.
The capital was poorly defended, and a Confederate push on the city could have been catastrophic. Wallace, commanding a small Union force, moved to intercept Early. He brought the Confederates to battle at Monocacy, Maryland, on July 9, 1864. Wallace was defeated on the field.
But the stand mattered more than the outcome. The engagement slowed Early’s advance long enough for reinforcements to reach Washington and for the capital’s defenses to be made ready. When Early arrived before the city, he found it too strong to take. Wallace’s defeat at Monocacy had bought the Union the time it needed, and in doing so, it saved Washington from a Confederate assault.
The war was nearly over when Grant gave Wallace one final assignment. On January 22, 1865, Grant ordered him to the Rio Grande in southern Texas to investigate Confederate military operations in the area. Although Wallace was not officially authorized to offer surrender terms, he entered discussions regarding proposals for the surrender of Confederate troops in the Trans-Mississippi Department. He provided Grant with copies of the proposals and reported on the negotiations.
No agreement was ever reached, but the mission reflected the trust that had been restored in Wallace’s abilities after the long shadow of Shiloh. After the war, Wallace held several government positions, including governor of the New Mexico Territory. He also became known for something entirely different from soldiering: writing the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, a book that would become one of the best-selling American novels of the nineteenth century.
His military career had its great triumph and its great failure, but his legacy would be secured not by a battlefield victory, but by a story.