Lew Wallace - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Wallace was born in Brookville, Indiana, to David Wallace and Esther French Test Wallace. His father was a graduate of the United States Military Academy and served as lieutenant governor and Indiana Governor. When Wallace's father was elected as lieutenant governor of Indiana, he moved his family to Covington, Indiana. Wallace's autobiography contains many stories from his boyhood in Covington, including the account of the death of his mother in 1834. In 1836, at the age of nine, he joined his brother in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he briefly attended Wabash Preparatory School. His father remarried, to Zerelda Gray Sanders Wallace, a prominent suffragist and temperance advocate, who was stepmother to the boys. Lew Wallace rejoined his father in Indianapolis.

In 1846 at the start of the Mexican-American War, Wallace was studying law. He left that to raise a company of militia and was elected a second lieutenant in the 1st Indiana Infantry regiment. He rose to the position of regimental adjutant and the rank of first lieutenant, serving in the army of Zachary Taylor, although he personally did not participate in combat. After hostilities, he was mustered out of the volunteer service on June 15, 1847.