By Phil Spaugy
February 15, 1862, had been a day of days for Brig. Gen. Lew Wallace. One year earlier, the 34-year-old Indiana resident of Crawfordsville was the captain of a 65-member strong home state militia company, the Montgomery Guards. Now, Wallace found himself in in command of one of the three infantry divisions of Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s army facing Confederate forces entrenched in Fort Donelson, hard on the banks of the Cumberland River in west Tennessee.
An attorney by profession, Wallace had served in the Indiana Volunteer Infantry during the War with Mexico. But to his great disappointment, he did not see combat. An indifferent student, Wallace possessed a great interest and passion for military affairs (his father was an 1821 graduate of West Point), which led to his founding of the Montgomery Guards in 1856. Fueled by the popularity of the drill exhibitions put on by Elmer E. Ellsworth’s Chicago Cadets attired in the Zouave fashion, Wallace designed a uniform for his Guards in by 1859. The new uniform complimented the Zouave drill practiced by the men.
At the outbreak of hostilities, Indiana Gov. Oliver Morton requested Wallace’s services as the state’s Adjutant General. Wallace wanted field command, and so served briefly before being named colonel of the 11th Indiana Zouaves in June 1861 for a three-month enlistment. Wallace and his Zouaves were assigned to garrison the vital Baltimore and Ohio railroad line at Cumberland, Md. While there, he led the 11th on a successful action at Romney, Va., routing a Confederate force.
At Fort Donelson, Wallace’s Division occupied the center of the federal lines encircling the enemy garrison. The division played a critical role in holding its position when the division on their right, commanded by Brig. Gen. John McClernand, was forced back when Confederates attacked, led by Brig. Gen. Gideon Pillow. Pillow had hoped to hold open the Old Charlotte Road as an avenue of retreat for his army. But Wallace quickly closed the gap, shutting the door on the escape route. The Confederate garrison surrendered the next day.
Wallace and his division performed well that day. As night fell, he mounted his warhorse “John” and followed closely behind his division as it pushed the Confederates back into their entrenched lines. As he advanced across the battleground, Wallace was exposed to the horrific nature of combat. He described the experience:
“While following the line I saw a man sitting against a stump in a position natural as life. Besides the Confederate homespun of which his clothes were made, he sported a coon-skin cap with the tail of the animal for plume. His eyes were wide open and there was a broad grin on his face. I would have sworn the look and grin were at me, and, stopping, I spoke to an orderly.
‘Find out what that fellow means by grinning that way. If he answers decently, help him.’
The orderly dismounted and shook the man, then said, ‘Why he’s dead, sir.’
‘That can’t be. See where he’s hit.’
The cap when taken off, brought away with it a mass that sickened us. A small bullet—from a revolver, probably—had gone through the inner corner of his eye leaving no visible wound, but the whole back of the head was blown off and the skull entirely emptied.
On a little farther we rode over the body of a Confederate lying on his back spread-eagle fashion. A gun clutched in his hand arrested me.
‘Get that gun,’ I said, and one of my men jumped down for it.
It is in my study now, a handsomely mounted, muzzle-loading, old-style squirrel rifle. Sometimes I take it out to try at a mark, when, as a souvenir, it strikes me with one drawback—touching it is to revive the memory of its owner looking up at the sky from his sheet of crimson snow; and that he brought the piece to the field with him intending to kill Yankees as he was in the habit of killing long-tailed rodents does not always suffice to allay the shiver it excites.”
Today, this rifle is on display at the Lew Wallace Study & Museum in Crawfordsville. It is part of a rich collection of artifacts from the general’s eventful life.
Made by the Philadelphia firm of Tryon and Company, this ornate .36 caliber firearm was likely as prized by its former Southern owner as it was a precious memento for Wallace. While one may wonder why such a fine civilian rifle was being used in battle, it should be remembered that Confederates fought with a variety of arms during the early part of the war, including civilian types brought from home.
The remainder of Wallace’s Civil War service is well known.
- The controversy of Shiloh, in which Grant blamed him for being dilatory in leading his division during the battle.
- Command at Cincinnati during 1862.
- Command during Confederate invasion of Kentucky, August-October 1862.
- Command of federal forces at the Battle of the Monocacy, Md., July 1864, where he lost to Gen. Jubal Early’s invading Confederates, but bought time for the federal Sixth Army Corps to arrive to help defend Washington.
He also sat on the military commission for the trials of the Lincoln assassination conspirators in May and June 1865, and, later that year, presided over the trial of Henry Wirz, the Confederate commandant of the Andersonville prison camp.
Wallace’s 1880 novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, became one of the best-selling books of the 19th century and was adapted for numerous media.
Special thanks to Thomas Meeks, Associate Director, General Lew Wallace Study & Museum for his great tour, and for his assistance with this article. For more information, visit ben-hur.com.
Phil Spaugy is a longtime member of the North South Skirmish Association (N-SSA). He studies arms and accouterments of federal infantry soldiers with an emphasis on his home state of Ohio, firearms of the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, and the Iron Brigade. He is a partner with Jim Hessler, in Hessler Spaugy Action Travel. Phil is a retired aviation services company executive who lives in Vandalia, Ohio, with his wife, Amy. He is a MI Senior Editor. Contact Phil at PhilSpaugy@gmail.com.
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