Lew Wallace - Post-war Career

Post-war Career

Wallace resigned from the army on November 30, 1865. After war's end, he continued to try to help the Mexican army expel the French, and was offered a major general's commission in the Mexican army. Multiple promises by the Mexicans were never delivered upon, forcing Wallace into deep financial debt.

Wallace held a number of important political posts during the 1870s and 1880s. He was appointed as governor of New Mexico Territory from 1878 to 1881, during a time of violence and political corruption. He was appointed as U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire from 1881 to 1885.

As governor, Wallace offered amnesty to many men involved in the Lincoln County War. In the process he met with the outlawed William Henry McCarty, also known as Billy the Kid. On March 17, 1879, the pair arranged that the Kid would act as an informant and testify against others involved in the Lincoln County War, and, it has been claimed, that in return the Kid would be "scot free with a pardon in pocket for all misdeeds.". According to this account, Wallace, facing the political forces then ruling New Mexico, was unable to come through on his end of the bargain. The Kid went back to his outlaw ways, and killed additional men.

In the 21st century, supporters of Billy the Kid made a request for a posthumous pardon, based on the claim of a pardon promised and not delivered by Wallace, to then-Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson. On December 31, 2010, on the eve of leaving office, Richardson turned down the pardon request, citing a "lack of conclusiveness and the historical ambiguity" over Wallace's actions. Descendants of Wallace and Billy the Kid's killer Sheriff Pat Garrett were among those who opposed the pardon.

Taking up writing again after the war, Wallace published his first novel in 1873. While serving as governor, Wallace completed his second novel, which made him famous: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880). It became the best-selling American novel of the 19th century, surpassing Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin and is considered "the most influential Christian book of the ... century." The book has never been out of print and has been adapted for film four times. The historian Victor Davis Hanson has argued that the novel drew from Wallace's life, particularly his experiences at Shiloh, and the damage it did to his reputation. The book's main character, Judah Ben-Hur, accidentally causes injury to a high-ranking commander, for which he and his family suffer tribulations and calumny. He first seeks revenge, and then redemption.

Wallace went on to publish several novels and biographies, plus his memoir; but Ben-Hur was his most important book. He designed a writing study, built 1895-1898, near his residence in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Now called the General Lew Wallace Study, it has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is operated as a house museum, open to the public.

Wallace died, likely from cancer, in Crawfordsville and is buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery.