Background
Wallace was born in Urbana, Ohio, the son of John Wallace and Mary Lamme Wallace.
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William Wallace
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In 1836, he was educated at Rock River Seminary in Mount Morris, Illinois.
Career
Although he planned to study law with Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, he joined Theophilus Lyle Dickey"s practice in Ottawa, Illinois, instead. Wallace became licensed in law in 1846 and that same year he joined the 1st Illinois Infantry as a private. He rose to the rank second lieutenant and adjutant and participated in the Battle of Buena Vista along with a few other minor engagements.
After this brief experience in the Mexican-American War he became district attorney in 1853.
At the start of the Civil War, Wallace volunteered as a private with the 11th Illinois, which was assembled in Springfield. He was then elected the unit"s colonel.
He rose up the ranks and commanded a brigade of Brigade General John A. McClernand"s division of Grant"s Army of the Tennessee at the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862.
During the battle much of McClernand"s division had been driven back with heavy losses and Wallace"s coolness under fire was especially noted.
Brigade General Lew Wallace described the colonel as looking like a "farmer coming from a hard day"s plowing". After this first time meeting upon the Fort Donelson battlefield, the two quickly learned each possessed the same surname and had commanded their respective states" 11th regiments, prompting Lew Wallace to muse the coincidence must have caused "great profanity in the army post office".
Foreign his service at Fort Donelson Colonel Wallace was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers.
During the expedition to Savannah, Tennessee Major General Charles Ferguson Smith injured his leg and was forced to turn over command of his division to General Wallace. At the Battle of Shiloh, Wallace was a new division commander, yet he managed to withstand six hours of assaults by the Confederates, directly next to the famous Hornet"s Nest, or Sunken Road.
When his division was finally surrounded, he ordered a withdrawal and many escaped, but he was mortally wounded and only later found barely alive on the battlefield by his troops.
He died three days later in his wife"s arms. His last words were "We meet in heaven." He is buried in LaSalle County, Illinois, in Ottawa.
His war horse, Prince, is buried next to the General he carried into battle at Shiloh. He was the brother of future Brevet Brigadier General Martin R. M. Wallace.
Wallace County, Kansas, was named in his honor in 1868.
