Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/315

This page needs to be proofread.

WALLACE


WALLACE


City Point, Va., by General Grant, who highly commended Wallace's action on this occasion. He was second member of the court that tried the assassins of President Lincoln, and in 1865 pres- ident of tliat which tried and convicted Henry Wirz, commandant of Andersonville prison. He was mustered out of service in 1865, and again engaged in the practice of law and in literary work in Crawfordsville, Ind. He was governor of New Mexico, 1878-81, and U.S. minister to Turkey, 1881-85, receiving among other honors the imperial decoration of the Medjidie. He made a tour of the Holy Land, 1885, collecting literary material and subsequently lecturing on his travels in the leading cities of the United States. Under the name of " Lew Wallace," he is the author of : The Fair God (1873); Ben Hur, a Tale of the Christ (1880 ; dramatized, 1898); Life of General Benjamin Harrison (1888); Tlie Boyhood of Christ (1889); The Prince of India (1893); Tlie Wooing of Malkatoon (1898). See: the various articles on the battle of Shiloh in " Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," also General Wallace's contri- bution, " The Capture of Fort Donelson " (Vol. I.).

WALLACE, Susan (Arnold) Elston, author, was born in Crawfordsville, Ind., Dec. 25, 1830; daughter of Maj. Isaac Compton and jMaria Aiken (Arnold) Elston ; granddaughter of Jacob and Joanna Elston and of Sylvia Arnold. She was graduated from the Society of Friends' school, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1849, and was married, May 6, 1852, to Lewis Wallace (q.v.). While in Turkey, during her husband's diplomatic service there, she was invested with the decoration of the Nishan V. Shefkat, or Order of Good Works. She is the author of: The Storied Sea (1884); Ginevra, or the Old Oak Chest (1887); The Repose in Egypt (1888); The Land of the Pueblos (1888); Along the Bosphorus (1898), and of many contri- butions in prose and poetry to leading periodicals.

WALLACE, William A., senator, was born in Clearfield. Pa., Nov. 28, 1827. He attended the public grammar and free school at Huntingdon, Pa. ; was master of Clearfield (Pa.) academy ; ad- mitted to the bar in September, 1847, and began practice in Clearfield. He was a state senator, 1862-75, and again in 1882, favoring the bill to establish and sustain soldiers' orjahans' schools in 1864, and serving as speaker in 1871 ; was a mem- ber of the Democratic national convention at Chicago, 111., Aug. 29, 1864 ; delegate and chair- man of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Dem- ocratic national convention at Baltimore, Md., July 9, 1872 ; chairman of the Democratic state committee and appointed one of the commis- sioners on the amendment of the state constitu- tion in 1874. He served as U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, 1875-81 ; was subsequently presi- dent of the Beech Creek railroad, and the Dem-


ocratic nominee for governor of Pennsylvania in 1890, withdrawing in favor of Robert E. Pattison (q.v.). He died in New York city, May 22, 1896. WALLACE, William Harvey Lamb, soldier, was born in Urbana, Ohio, July 8, 1821. The family removed to Illinois in 1832, where he was admitted to the bar in 1846, in which year he en- listed in the 1st Illinois regiment of volunteers for service in the Mexican war. He was pro- moted adjutant ; served at Buena Vista, and after the close of the war, practised law, being ap- pointed district attorney in 1853. He was com- missioned colonel, 11th Indiana Zouaves, May,

1861, taking part in Grant's attack on Belmont, Mo., Nov. 7, 1861, and on Fort Henry, Feb. 6,

1862, and at the battle of Fort Donelson, Feb. 14-15, commanded a brigade in McClernand's division, serving with distinction, and being pro- moted brigadier-general in 1862. Owing to the illness of Gen. C. F. Smith, he commanded the 2d division in Grant's Army of the Tennessee at Shiloh, where, with Hurlbut's 4th division, he formed a line of battle in the rear. The two commanders were soon ordered forward for sup- port, Hurlbut sending a brigade to re-enforce Sherman's left, and Wallace one to the aid of McArthur on the riglit, thus leaving the two re- maining brigades of each between the extremes, with no connection. On this line, called by the Confederates the " Hornets' Nest, the battle was stubbornly fought on the 6th of April, until by 4 o'clock, Wallace was left unsupported, save by General Prentiss of the 6th division. Together they vigorously held their ground, the Confed- erates closing upon each flank, until 5 o'clock, when General Wallace, in the endeavor to extri- cate his command, was mortally wounded. See : "Shiloh Reviewed" by Maj. -Gen. Don Carlos Buell in " Battles and Leaders of the Civil War."' He died in Savannah, Tenn., April 10, 1862.

WALLACE, William James, jurist, was born in Syracuse, N.Y., April 14, 1837; son of E. Ful- ler and Lydia (Wheelwright) Wallace ; grandson of James and Elizabeth (Francis) Wallace, and of John and Caroline Wheelwright, and a de- scendant of Dr. Malcolm Wallace. He was grad- uated from Hamilton college, Clinton, N.Y.. LL.B., 1857 ; admitted to the bar in 1858, and commenced practice in Syracuse, N.Y. He was married, April 16, 1878, to Alice, daughter of Washington and Harriet (Gibbons) Wheelwright of New York city. He was mayor of Syracuse, 1873-74; U.S.distriet judge of the northern dis- trict of New York, 1874-82, and in the latter year was appointed U.S. circuit judge of the second judicial circuit, a position which he still held in 1903. The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Hamilton college in 1875, and by Syracuse university in 1882.