William and Mary College to take part in the revolutionary war, young Holstein threw up Homer and the siege of Troy to enlist in the Indiana volunteers at the breaking out of the siege of Fort Sumter. He was then seventeen years old, but almost immediately his colonel, Thomas T. Crittenden, after wards a distinguished general, made Hol stein, sergeant-major. His term of enlist ment for service on the fighting line of the Potomac having expired, he again enlisted in another — the fighting, twenty-second Indiana regiment; and was, because of previous service, made lieutenant, and be fore the war closed, he became an assis tant adjutant general under the Lincoln appointment; and as such served in all the south western campaigns, and especially distinguished himself in the famous battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas. Ill health from exposure compelled his retirement under medical advice, and after some recupera tion he resumed studies in Hanover College and after graduation, entered Harvard law school; and with the degree of LL.B., re turned home to take a course of local law. Upon admission to the bar in 1866, he took legal service with the firm of which Thomas A. Hendricks was senior partner — a gentle man whose excelling qualities as an advocate became more or less obscured by his politi cal affiliations. Captain Holstein's partnership was next with Byron K. Elliott, and they managed a large business. Holstein especially excel ling as a jury lawyer. But this connection was sundered when Elliott accepted the office of local judge in the Marion Criminal Court, a position subsequently exchanged for a promotion to the Supreme Court of the State. Holstein often enjoyed the pleas ure of practising before his old partner. The former remained a lone fisherman with legal nets, until August, 1871, when Federal Attorney General Williams of the Depart ment of Justice commissioned Holstein as assistant to the Federal district attorney
of the Indianopolis District. At the same time he was junior partner in the law firm of Hanna, Kneffler and Holstein. He, how ever, became so essential as a prosecutor that when the celebrated prosecution of the whiskey conspirators began, he was obliged to sever his private law connection and bring his whole time to that Federal prosecution. In it Mr. Holstein exhibited a keen detec tive talent in exploiting motive and arrang ing evidence. He was, however, prosecutor without being ever persecutor. Courteously tenacious and elastic in treatment of hostile testimony, he was a keen cross-examiner; knowing when to cease, and how to avoid risks of questioning too far an interested or partisan witness — matters which some, and especially young, lawyers are apt, perhaps impulsively, to overlook. Holstein was alert and never discomposed by apparently losing results of evidence, and in every respect he proved to be an excel lent lawyer. He showed that his learning was grounded upon principles, and not merely dependent upon case-law. Although highly oratorical he never sacrificed logic to mere rhetoric. He not only interested, but he convinced and persuaded. He possessed musical intonation and knew how to use an emotional gamut of voice. His briefs in the published State or Federal reports attest Mr. Holstein's professional vigor and learning. In the trial of the defrauding whiskey conspirators he exhibited so much skill that he was not only complimented by the De partment of Justice, but he was offered a special retainer to assist in conducting similar prosecutions in New Orleans, which ill health compelled him to decline. When a vacancy in the office of district attorney occurred, President Hayes appointed Hol stein to the office, and he was retained under Arthur, but of course, surrendered it at the political change of administration, when Grover Cleveland became President in 1885. He was during his terms, the youngest district attorney under the Department of Justice.
