Lew Wallace (Author of Ben-Hur)

Lew Wallace鈥檚 Followers (62)

Lew Wallace

Born

in Brookville, Indiana, The United States

April 10, 1827

Died

February 15, 1905

Genre

Biography, Historical Fiction, Religion

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Lewis "Lew" Wallace was a lawyer, governor, Union general in the American Civil War, American statesman, and author, best remembered for his historical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

From Civil War Biography:

Although he would have much preferred to be remembered as a highly successful military hero, Lew Wallace has been thwarted in this ambition and is best known as an author. Born in Indiana, he had worked as a clerk and early displayed a fascination for Mexico which would affect him in later years. During the Mexican War he served as a second lieutenant in the lst Indiana but saw only minor action. In 1849 he was admitted to the bar in his native state and seven years later entered the state senate.
With the outbreak of the Civil War Lewis "Lew" Wallace was a lawyer, governor, Union general in the American Civil War, American statesman, and author, best remembered for his historical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

From Civil War Biography:

Although he would have much preferred to be remembered as a highly successful military hero, Lew Wallace has been thwarted in this ambition and is best known as an author. Born in Indiana, he had worked as a clerk and early displayed a fascination for Mexico which would affect him in later years. During the Mexican War he served as a second lieutenant in the lst Indiana but saw only minor action. In 1849 he was admitted to the bar in his native state and seven years later entered the state senate.
With the outbreak of the Civil War he offered his services, and his assignments included: adjutant general of Indiana (April 1861); colonel, 11th Indiana (April 25, 1861); colonel, 11th Indiana (reorganized August 31, 1861); brigadier general, USV (September 3, 1861); commanding 3rd Division, District of Cairo, Department of the Missouri (February 14-17, 1862); major general, USV (March 21, 1862); commanding 3rd Division, Army of the Tennessee (February 17-June 1862); commanding 8th Corps, Middle Department (March 22, 1864-February 1,1865 and April 19-August 1, 1865); and also commanding the department (March 22, 1864-February 1,1865 and April 19-June 27, 1865).
His career got off to a promising start when he routed an inferior Confederate force at Romney, Virginia. Promoted to brigadier general, he was given charge of a newly organized division in the midst of the operations against Fort Donelson and was soon rewarded with a second star. However, that spring his reputation plummeted after the battle of Shiloh. On the first day his division was stationed north of the main army at Crump's Landing, and a series of contradictory orders from Grant forced him to countermarch his command and delayed his arrival on the main battlefield until the fighting was nearly over. He redeemed himself on the second day, but a scapegoat was needed for the near disaster the day before and this was Wallace. Sent home to await further orders, he offered his services to Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton and, despite his high rank, took temporary command of a regiment during the emergency posed by Kirby Smith's invasion of Kentucky. With Cincinnati threatened, Wallace was placed in charge of a mostly civilian defense force. Through a show of tremendous energy he was able to save the city without a major fight. He was then head of the commission which examined Buell's handling of the invasion and other boards until placed in charge in Maryland in early 1864. There he bought valuable time for the defenders of Washington during Early's drive into the state when he made a stand at Monocacy with an inferior scratch force.
At the close of the war he sat on the court-martial which tried the Lincoln conspirators and presided over that which sent Andersonville chief Henry Wirz to the gallows. He then joined a movement to aid the Juarez forces against Maximilian in Mexico. He tried to raise money and troops and even accepted the title of major general from the Juarez group. On November 30, 1865, he resigned from the U.S. service, but his Mexican venture collapsed and he realized little of the money which he had hoped to gain from it. In later years he was governor of the New Mexico Territory and a diplomat to Turkey. As a prolific writer, who often drew upon his own experiences, he is best remembered for Ben Hur.- A Tale of the Cbrist, one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century ...more

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Lew Wallace鈥檚 books

Average rating: 4.03 · 38,013 ratings · 1,594 reviews · 250 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ 4.03 avg rating — 37,254 ratings — published 1880	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace, Steven Hines (Editor) 3.86 avg rating — 115 ratings — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Prince of India or Why Constantinople Fell, Volume 1 3.87 avg rating — 53 ratings — published 1893	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fair God 3.79 avg rating — 47 ratings — published 1873 — 219 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ben-Hur 3.96 avg rating — 26 ratings — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Prince of India or Why Constantinople Fell, Volume 2 4.15 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2013 — 108 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Prince of India or Why Constantinople Fell (Volume 1 & 2) 3.77 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 1957 — 61 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lew Wallace: The Complete Novels (The Greatest Writers of All Time Book 25) 3.90 avg rating — 10 ratings — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Smoke, Sound & Fury: The Civil War Memoirs of Major-General Lew Wallace, U.S. Volunteers really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1998 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How I Came to Write Ben-Hur 4.67 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2015	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Lew Wallace…

Quotes by Lew Wallace (?)

“Knowledge leaves no room for chances.”
― Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

tags: chance, ignorance, knowledge, luck, preparation, prepare

13 likes

“Heaven may be won, not by the sword, not by human wisdom, but by Faith, Love, and Good Works.”
― Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

6 likes

“A word as to the pleasure there is in the thought of a Soul in each of us. In the first place, it robs death of its terrors by making dying a change for the better, and burial but the planting of a seed from which there will spring a new life.”
― Lew Wallace, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

5 likes

See all Lew Wallace's quotes »

Polls

September 2019 Revisit the Shelf Poll

Dune by Frank Herbert Group read Nov 2012, 1965, 687 pages, Group read Nov 2012

70 votes, 23.0%

Middlemarch by George Eliot 1871, 904 pages, Group read Jan 2016

64 votes, 21.1%

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie 1904, 176 pages, Group read Nov 2014

58 votes, 19.1%

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol 1842, 512 pages, Group read May 2017

42 votes, 13.8%

Othello by William Shakespeare 1603, 314 pages, Group read June 2017

40 votes, 13.2%

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace 1880, 620 pages, Group read August 2012,

30 votes, 9.9%

304 total votes

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