Lew Wallace was a major general in the Union army and the author of the best-selling novel Ben-Hur. As explained by the National Park Service:[1]
| “ | In command of a reserve division under Grant at the Battle of Shiloh, he may have misinterpreted Grant's orders to move his division up in support of Gen. Sherman's troops at Shiloh Church. By the time Wallace's division arrived on the scene, the fighting had virtually ceased for the day. Although, Union forces carried the battle the next day, the casualty toll was horrific. Wallace received the lion's share of the blame from his superiors and was eventually reassigned to a regimental command protecting the city of Cincinnati during Kirby Smith's invasion of Kentucky. | ” |
At the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864, Wallace used a force of 5,800 men to defend Washington, D.C. against an advance of Gen. Jubal Early's 15,000-man Confederate army.
His writing as a novelist, particularly Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, became one of the best-selling American novels all time and a blockbuster movie in Ben-Hur (1959 film).