September 12

In a speech focused on citizen soldier Lew Wallace, historian and author Ray E. Boomhower follows one man's rise and fall in the Civil War. Boomhower traces Wallace's rise from commander of the Eleventh Indian Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the success which led to his promotion to major general, and his later fall from grace in the Battle of Shiloh. Boomhower also looks at the way Wallace managed to regain his reputation by defending Cincinnati and Washington DC from Confederate soldiers.

Ray E. Boomhower is senior editor of the Indian Historical Society's popular history magazine Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. He began working for the society as a public relations coordinator in 1987 and has been with them ever since. An accomplished author, Boomhower has received awards for several of his books as well as written many articles on history.

This events begins at 7pm in the Hayner House and is free to the public.

Defending the Union is made possible, in part, by the Ohio Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.