CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: W. E. WALLACE - Smith County, TX

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Submitted by Peggy Brannon - peggybrannon@hotmail.com
22 September 2001
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson

W. E. Wallace departed this life on January 12, at Antelope, Texas, having 
just passed his seventy-first birthday. He was a Confederate soldier before 
Texas was admitted to the Confederacy. He enlisted with 115 others at 
Weatherford, Texas, in the 2d Texas Regiment, commanded by Col. J. S. Ford. 
They were transferred to the C. S. A. at San  Antonio on May 22, 1861, and 
sent to Fort Clark, then to Fort Davis. On the 1st of January, 1863, the 
regiment was in the battle of Galveston, when the Harriet Lane was captured. 
They supported the land batteries; and when the Harriet Lane was disabled, 
Lieut. Wallace, with thirty men, was ordered to board her. They set out in a 
boat under heavy fire from the enemy; but before they reached her she ran up 
the white flag, and Lieut. Wallace was the first Confederate to put his foot 
on the deck of the captured Lane. The regiment was reorganized in 1863, and 
Charles Pryor was elected colonel. Comrade Wallace was one of the charter 
members of the G. R. Christian Camp, at Antelope, Tex., and served as 
Adjutant and Commander of the Camp for a long time. He was a strong man 
intellectually, and his death is deeply felt.