When the Civil War began, W.H.L. Wallace volunteered as a private with the 11th Illinois Infantry, which was assembled in Springfield. He was soon elected as the unit's colonel.
Wallace quickly rose through the ranks. He went on to command a brigade in a division of Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of Tennessee at the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862.
During that battle, much of the division was driven back with heavy losses. Wallace’s coolness under fire was especially noted by those around him.
Brigadier General Lew Wallace described the colonel as looking like a farmer coming in from a hard day’s plowing. When the two men first met on the Fort Donelson battlefield, they quickly learned they shared the same surname.
They also discovered that each commanded the 11th regiment of their respective states. For his service at Fort Donelson, Colonel Wallace was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers.
Later, during the expedition of Savannah, Tennessee, Major General Charles Smith injured his leg. He was forced to turn over command of his division to Wallace.
At the Battle of Shiloh, Wallace was a new division commander. Despite his inexperience, he managed to withstand six hours of assault by the Confederates directly next to the famous Hornet’s Nest, also known as the Sunken Road.
When his division was finally surrounded, he ordered a withdrawal. Many of his men escaped, but Wallace was wounded in the fighting.
He was only found later, barely alive on the battlefield, by his own troops. They carried him to his wife, who had arrived for a surprise visit to see her husband on the very morning of the battle.
She helped tend to him as he was transported back to General Grant’s headquarters. Wallace died three days later in his wife’s arms.
His last words were, "We meet in heaven."