Family Lineage:
Benjamin Franklin, son of “Kansas” Benjamin, son of John Jr., son of John Sr., son of “Bedford County” Michael, son of Esther and Hans Michael Wallick.

During the American Civil War it was not uncommon for soldiers to have different spellings of their surnames written in their service records.  The surname Wallick can be found on military documents with alternate endings of "a-c-k" and "e-c-k" (it is clear that most of the time the changes were due to clerical errors).  Two of the three Wallick soldiers buried in our national cemeteries have alternate spellings of Wallick on their headstones.  Both Isaiah Wallick, buried at Chattanooga, Tennessee and Elias Wallick, buried at Winchester, Virginia have their names spelled Wall-a-c-k.  People were not as careful with spelling in the nineteenth century and many times if a spelling mistake was made, rather than correct it, people just let it go.  Ulysses S. Grant is a prime example.

Hiram Ulysses Grant (his real name) was nominated to West Point by a congressman who, in a rush to secure the appointment, didn’t just misspell Grant’s name but completely changed it to Ulysses Simpson Grant (Simpson coming from his mother's maiden name).  When the young cadet went to register at West Point, rather than argue with the adjutant’s office about the mistake, he just let it go.  He also was aware that the initials to his legal name spelled H.U.G, and that could make life a little more difficult for a plebe at West Point.  The mistake, however, proved to be a boon for U.S. Grant both during the war and in civilian life.  After his glorious victory early in the war at Ft. Donelson, he became a hero in the North, known in the newspapers as Unconditional Surrender Grant, thanks to his congressman’s mental error.

There is one Wallick soldier who spelled his name Wall-a-c-k and it was not a clerk's error or careless penmanship but a deliberate change made by that soldier.  All of Benjamin Franklin Wallack’s service records are consistent in spelling his last name, Wall-a-c-k, from his signature on the enlistment papers through his compiled service record.  Benjamin Franklin Wallack was called “Frank” by his family and friends, and so he will be called in this biography to avoid confusing Frank with his father, “Kansas” Benjamin, and all the other Benjamins from the Wallick clan.

                                                                       Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Wallack, 1870
 One family account states that Benjamin Franklin Wall-i-c-k deliberately changed his name to Wall-a-c-k early in his young adult life.  The story is told that Frank's wife, Ellen Green, had pressed the matter of changing the spelling of his surname and that Frank finally agreed. This well-educated eastern woman felt that the spelling of Wallick had somehow become cor-rupted through the years.  Her rationale was that back east, every Wallick she knew ended their name in A-C-K.  Two brothers, John and Charles, had business ties with Frank and they also agreed to change their names.  This irritated and ang-ered their father, Benjamin, who threatened to disinherit them all.  In order for this story to be true, Frank and Ellen Green would have to have met and agreed to this name-change issue before he enlisted, because all of Frank's service records from the National Archives are all spelled Wall-a-c-k. However, the marriage did not actually take place until seven years after his enlistment, making the truthfulness of this story suspect.  In any case the name change happened and there is a branch of the Hans Michael Walck/Wallick family that spells its name Wall-a-c-k and that can be traced back to Benjamin Franklin Wallack (1844-1887).   

 Frank Wallack’s very early childhood days were spent in Tuscarawas County, Ohio.  Then in 1850 his father, Benjamin, learned of the rich farmlands of DeKalb County, Indiana and decided to move his family there, settling in the little town of Butler.  After ten years Benjamin, again, decided to move his family still farther west to the Kansas Territory, an exploding war zone since the mid-1850s.

The Kansas/Missouri border war was an ugly affair; a bloody insurrection that preceded our national civil war by nearly a decade.  Small groups of anti-slavery partisans called Jayhawkers, and pro-slavery zealots called Bushwhackers, waged war against each other.  These were roaming mobs of partisans rather than an organized militia.   Stephen Douglas, the senator from Illinois, crafted the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 that gave new territories the right of self-determination in choosing to become a slave or free state.  Election fraud and voter intimidation was rampant along the Kansas-Missouri border and citizens resorted to force-of-arms to settle their political disputes.  For a time Kansas would have two state governments with two different constitutions: one that included slavery and one that did not.  For many years guerrilla warfare reigned in the region.  Benjamin knew he was moving into a viper’s den when he decided to relocate his family to Atchison County, Kansas in March of 1860.
 

            "Kansas" Benjamin Wallack, 1870
Why would Frank’s father, Benjamin, willingly move his family into a region where violent civil insurrection was taking place?  He had no encouragement from his wife, Mary.  When she first saw the miles upon miles of bleak, treeless prairie land she became desperate to return to her home back in Indiana. Benjamin on the other hand saw the treeless landscape as a positive.  Kansas had very fertile grasslands and the lack of trees meant that a farmer didn’t have to spend years clearing the land and removing old stumps from his fields.  This new land also opened up more opportunities for his sons and it appears that first-born Frank took advantage of them.  Benjamin also had a pioneer’s spirit, just like his forefathers, and held some very strong personal beliefs.  He was an ardent Unionist and Republican (though not an abolitionist), puritanical in his religious beliefs and a strong disciplinarian.  Benjamin was not one to let a little adversity, such as unrestrained guerrilla warfare, interfere with the pursuit of his goals.  He couldn’t serve in uniform himself due to a hernia, but did actively support the Union’s cause by becoming an enlistment officer and sheriff of Atchison County.  As sheriff he saw to the needs of Unionist families while their husbands and fathers were off fighting the war.

                         Mid-1800s photo of a homestead in Atchison County, Kansas.






















  This is how Atchison, Kansas looked in 1860 when Benjamin Wallick arrived in town.

Frank Wallack's descendants have told the story that he was a substitute soldier for his father, but apparently that is not so.  There is nothing in Frank's compiled service record from the to support such a claim.  Frank has regular enlistment papers for the 17th Kansas Volunteer Infantry and he was mustered into Federal service for 100 days in the summer of 1864.

Frank Wallack's enlistment paper dated July 18, 1864.  If he had been a substitute soldier, a different document would have been used.  (See Huette Wallick, substitute soldier document)