Casper Wistar Wallace was born on June 15, 1834, in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to John and Mary Wallace. His father was a physician who owned $15,000 of real estate and $80,000 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Fredericksburg, before enrolling at the University of Virginia in 1850. He earned a law degree from UVA in 1855, and he worked as a lawyer in Fredericksburg. By 1860, he owned $2,000 of personal property.

 

In the spring of 1861, he received a commission as a 2^nd lieutenant in Company C of the 30^th Virginia Infantry. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the siege of Petersburg. In June 1861, he was detailed as a regimental quartermaster. He was promoted to 1^st lieutenant in December 1861 and then to captain in April 1862. In the summer of 1864, he became acting judge advocate general of the Army of Northern Virginia’s First Corps. He served until the end of the war.

 

He returned to Fredericksburg after the war and resumed his work as a lawyer. By 1870, he owned $600 of real estate and $10,000 of personal property. He served as commonwealth attorney for both Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County. He retired in 1886, and he travelled to Europe later that year. He later served as president of the National Bank of Fredericksburg. He died in Fredericksburg on May 20, 1907.

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