His life as a soldier and civilian has been fortunate and brilliant, in which glory and promotion followed hand in hand.  A comrade gives a few facts in his life.

Colonel William Wallace was born in Columbia, S.C., November 16th, 1824, and was graduated at the South Carolina College in 1844.  He then studied law under Chancellor James J. Caldwell.  Was admitted to the bar in 1846, and began the practice of law at Columbia, in which he continued, with the exception of his military service, giving attention also to his planting interests.

At the beginning of the Confederate War he held the rank of General in the State Militia.  At the call for troops, ordered out the Twenty-third Regiment, State Troops, and was the first man of the Regiment to volunteer.  He was elected Captain of the “Columbia Grays,” afterwards Company C of the Second South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Kershaw commanding.  After the reduction of Fort Sumter, with his company and three others of the Second, he volunteered for service in Virginia, and about a month after their arrival in Virginia the regiment was filled up with South Carolinians.  He was promoted to Major in 1863, to Lieutenant Colonel after the battle of the Wilderness, and to Colonel after the battle of Bentonville.

He had the honor of participating in the capture of Fort Sumter and the battles of Blackburn’s Ford, First Manassas, Williamsburg, Savage Station, Malvern Hill, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Second Cold Harbor, the defense of Petersburg until the winter of 1864-1865, and the campaign in the Carolinas, including the battles of Averysboro and Bentonville.

During the desperate struggle at Second Cold Harbor, in June, 1864, with the Second Regiment alone, he recaptured our breastworks on Kershaw’s right and Hoke’s left, from which two of our brigades had been driven.  The enemy driven out consisted of the Forty-eighth and One hundred and Twelfth New York, each numbering one thousand men, while the Second numbered only one hundred and twenty-six men all told.  So rapid was the assault that the color bearer of the Forty-eighth New York, with his colors, was captured and sent to General Kershaw, who was at his proper position some distance in rear of his division.

During his service Colonel Wallace was twice wounded—­in the foot, at Charlestown, W. Va., and in the arm, at Gettysburg.  After the conclusion of hostilities he returned to his home and the care of his plantation.  Previous to the war he had an honorable career in the Legislature, and immediately afterwards he was a member of the Convention of 1865 and of the Legislature next following, and was elected to the State Senate for four years, in 1881.  From 1891 to 1894 he was engaged in the correction of the indexes of the records of the Secretary of State’s office, and in 1894 was appointed postmaster of Columbia by President Cleveland.