Lewis (Lew) Wallace (1827-1905) was born to David Wallace, an Indiana governor, and Esther French (Test) Wallace in Brookville, Indiana. Wallace was a lieutenant in the 1st Indiana infantry during the Mexican War, 1846-1847. In 1848 Wallace edited a Free Soil Party paper to oppose the election of Zachary Taylor for president because he believed Taylor treated Indiana regiments badly during the Mexican War. After the election, Wallace became affiliated with the Democratic Party.

Wallace was admitted to the bar in 1849 and soon began practicing in Indianapolis. A short time later, he moved to Covington, Fountain County, where he was elected prosecuting attorney in 1850 and 1852. Wallace moved to Crawfordsville in 1853 and was elected to the Indiana State Senate in 1856 as a member of the Democratic Party.

In 1861, Governor Oliver P. Morton appointed Wallace Indiana adjutant general. For his recruitment services, Wallace was commissioned a colonel in the 11th Indiana Regiment and distinguished himself at the battle of Romney. He was soon promoted to general and fought at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, 1862. He was also in charge of the defense of Cincinnati, 1862-63, and was credited with saving the city from falling into Confederate hands. In 1864 he commanded a Union force of 5,800 at the Battle of Monocacy that held off an army of 28,000 Confederates and was credited with preventing the capture of Washington, D.C. Wallace was a member of the court-martial which tried the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination, 1865, and he was president of the commission that tried and convicted Henry Wirz, commander of Andersonville Prison, Georgia, 1865.

Wallace was also involved in acquiring arms and men for Mexican rebels fighting the French, 1865-1867. In 1867, he returned to Crawfordsville and was a Republican Party candidate for Congress in 1870. Wallace was named to the committee to oversee counting of disputed ballots in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina after the 1876 presidential election.

From 1878-1881 Wallace served as governor of New Mexico Territory, and it is this part of his career that is represented by the letters and documents shown here. This was a particularly violent and corrupt era in New Mexico’s history known for the Lincoln County War. A major reason for Wallace’s appointment was to restore peace. During this process, he became acquainted with William Bonney, whom he sought out as a witness to a murder. Feeling that justice was not properly served in this event, Bonney turned to a life of crime and violence, earning him the nickname of “Billy the Kid” and ultimately resulting in his death at the hands of Sheriff Pat Garrett in July 1881.

The Lincoln County (New Mexico) War, 1878–81, grew out of intense rivalry between to factions, one led by Lawrence G. Murphy and the other by wealthy Englishman John H. Tunstall and lawyer Alexander A. McSween. Murphy had virtually controlled the area’s economy since the end of the Civil War and had established a monopoly by operating the only mercantile establishment in the area and by charging high prices for his merchandise. In failing health he sold his business interests to James Dolan and John Riley in 1877. Alexander McSween, a lawyer and relative newcomer arriving in 1875, joined forces with Tunstall upon the latter's arrival in Lincoln County the following year and competed for business by first opening a rival store and then purchasing a cattle ranch with the financial backing of John Chisum, a long time rival of Murphy’s. Their goal was to take over Murphy's monopoly.

In December, 1877, the Murphy-Dolan faction, backed by a corrupt coalition of politicians known as the Santa Fe Ring, engineered charges against McSween, claiming that he had embezzled money that belonged to them. McSween was arrested and ordered to turn over $8,000 in property. Lincoln County Sheriff Brady, also a friend of Dolan and Riley, was charged with seizing the property which would effectively put Tunstall and McSween out of business. On 18 February, 1878 McSween’s soon-to-be partner, Tunstall, was murdered by a sheriff’s posse on the road to Lincoln from his ranch. McSween’s group, which included William H. Bonney, later known as “Billy the Kid,” sought revenge and a number of Murphy-Dolan sympathizers were killed, including Sheriff Brady. After a number of fatal confrontations between the two factions, McSween occupied Lincoln with 41 men, and from 15-18 July 1878 the two factions battled to a stalemate. Sheriff George Peppin, Brady's successor, asked for military assistance from Fort Stanton "to protect women the and children." The intervention of the army resulted in defeat for the McSween contingent. In a final battle fought on July 19 McSween was killed and his house burned; five other men also died in the fighting, but Bonney "the Kid" escaped.

President Rutherford B. Hayes removed New Mexico Governor Samuel B. Axtell in September 1878 and replaced him with Lew Wallace. Axtell had taken loans from Murphy and thus had been accused of favoring the Dolan-Riley faction. Following Wallace's promulgation of an amnesty the violence in the county subsided, until the murder of Huston Chapman on 18 February 1879 by Dolan and another man. This brought Governor Wallace and a troop of cavalry on 6 March 1879 to Lincoln to investigate and restore order. Wallace stayed in Lincoln for six weeks and interviewed witnesses. Among those he talked to was William Bonney who had witnessed the murder and had agreed to testify against the men arrested in return for pardon. Although he testified as he had said he would, Bonney became disillusioned when no pardon was forthcoming and turned to a life of crime and violence that lasted for 18 months. He was captured and tried for the murder of Sheriff Brady and sentenced to be hanged. Bonney appealed in vain to Wallace for clemency. He escaped jail but was shot by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett on 14 July 1881. Bonney’s death is generally regarded as marking the end of the Lincoln County War.

Lew Wallace went on to serve as U.S. Minister to Turkey, a position he held from 1881-1885. While in Turkey, Wallace won the confidence of the Sultan to an unusual extent. After his public service career, Wallace returned to Crawfordsville, where he spent much of his life in literary pursuits.

Although Wallace had a distinguished military and political career, he was probably best known as an author. Among his works were The Fair God (1873), Ben-Hur (1880), The Life of Benjamin Harrison (1888), The Boyhood of Christ (1888), and The Prince of India (1893).

The bulk of the Lew Wallace papers at the Indiana Historical Society date from the period 1846–1905 and consist of Wallace's correspondence with his wife and son, retained copies of Wallace's business and professional letters, and letters to Wallace and his family. Included are Wallace's letters from Mexico (1846–47); and letters to his wife describing his military and civil service during the Civil War, in Mexico (1865–67), New Mexico Territory (1878–81), and Turkey (1885); and letters from his tours throughout the United States (1886–87, 1894). There are also many contemporary transcriptions of these letters that are interfiled with the originals, 1860s–1880s. A sizeable portion of Wallace’s literary papers are held at the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Collection Guide
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Lew Wallace papers project at IHS

Selected Bibliography

Keleher, William. Violence in Lincoln County. Albuquerque New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1957.

Morsberger, Robert. Lew Wallace: Militant Romantic. New York: McGraw Hill, 1980.

Utley, Robert Marshall. High Noon in Lincoln: Violence on the Western Frontier. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1987.