Lew Wallace

Wallace, Lew (Lewis Wallace; 1827–1905), U.S. military leader, lawyer, and author. Wallace is best known for his novels, particularly Ben Hur (1880), about the advent of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Wallace served in the Mexican War, and while a Union Army major general in the Civil War, captured Fort Donelson, Tenn. Wallace had studied law before the wars and became a practicing attorney in Indianapolis after military service. He headed courts of inquiry investigating wartime conduct of some Union and Confederate leaders, and served on the trial of Abraham Lincoln's assassins. He was appointed governor of New Mexico (1878–81) and minister to Turkey (1881–85).