Lew Wallace (1827-1905), American military leader and writer. His full name is Lewis Wallace. Wallace was born in Brookville, Indiana. His law studies were interrupted by the Mexican War (1846-1848), in which he served as an officer with a volunteer regiment from 1846 to 1847. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), Wallace served in the Union army and reached the rank of major general. At the close of the war, he presided over several military courts of inquiry and was a member of the court that tried those accused of conspiring to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Wallace served as governor of the territory of New Mexico from 1878 to 1881 and as minister to Turkey from 1881 to 1885. His novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) won him a worldwide reputation. A play (1899) and two motion pictures (1926 and 1959) have been based on the book. Wallace's other novels include The Fair God (1873) and The Prince of India (1893).