Scarce Signed CDV of Lewis Wallace, Civil War General and Author of the Classic, “Ben Hur”

A major general from Indiana in the Civil War, and a division commander, Wallace became controversial for his performance at Shiloh. His most important service to the Union cause came in July 1864, when Gen. Jubal Early and his Confederate corps made a serious demonstration against Washington, D.C., threatening to take the nation's capital. Wallace, though greatly outnumbered, held off Early for a crucial day, which gave the Union time to reinforce the poorly defended capital and thwart the Confederates' advance.

After the war, Wallace was governor of New Mexico Territory from 1878 to 1881, and then was U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1881 to 1885. He was also an author, and while serving as New mexico governor, completed his second novel, which made him famous: "Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ". 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 19th century. The book has never been out of print and has been adapted for film four times. In the U.S. Capitol, in Statuary Hall, one of the two representatives of the State of Indiana is Wallace, who was thus honored.

A war time CDV of Wallace in his uniform, by E&HT Anthony from a Brady photo, signed "Lew. Wallace, Maj. Gen. Vols." Signed photographs of Wallace are very scarce, this being the first we have had.