Russell Conwell

Early life

Hailing from a New England family of English descent and the son of Massachusetts farmers, Conwell left home to attend the Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy and later Yale University. In 1862, before graduating from Yale, he enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Conwell desired to enlist in the war effort shortly after its outbreak in 1861, but could not initially gain the approval of his father, Martin Conwell. His abolitionist father ultimately changed his mind, allowing Conwell to enlist in Company "F" of the 27th Massachusetts Volunteers, better known as the "Mountain Boys". Conwell and the Mountain Boys served in North Carolina and first engaged the opposition at Kinston, North Carolina. There Conwell gained a reputation for self-sacrifice.

During the "Gum Swamp" expedition, he returned to the battlefield to retrieve the bodies of two of his deceased soldiers, and later during the same campaign purposefully drew enemy fire upon his position – resulting in his being shot in the shoulder – in order to gain a tactical advantage on his Confederate adversaries. On September 25, 1862 he was commissioned as a captain (to rank from September 9, 1862) and placed in command of Company F of the 46th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. He was mustered out of service, along with his regiment, on July 29, 1863.

After his nine-month enlistment, Conwell returned home to Massachusetts to convalesce after contracting a dangerous fever that plagued him throughout the summer of 1863. Upon regaining health, he volunteered for a three-year enlistment in the Second Massachusetts Artillery and was commissioned as a captain in command of Company D on September 9, 1863. He then returned to North Carolina and was placed in command of a fort in Newport Barracks. After his soldiers there had not been paid for three months, Conwell requested and received permission to travel to Newberne to secure remuneration for his men. While he secured a pass through the lines, he did not secure a permit to be absent from this post, nor did it appear that the 21-year-old Conwell understood the distinction. Twenty miles into his trip, Conwell learned that Confederate forces attacked and overran his company's position. When subsequently reported that the absence of Union officers contributed to the loss, Conwell was placed under arrest and detained in Newberne pending an investigation, resulting in him being accused of desertion by his detractors. Conwell was mustered out of the 2nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery on May 20, 1864. While he claimed that he was later reinstated by General James B. McPherson, no military records confirm his statement.

Two months into his detention, and prior to the completion of the investigation, Conwell was assigned to Nashville, Tennessee, in June 1864 to join General MacPherson's movement against Atlanta. During the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, now Lieutenant-Colonel Conwell's arm and shoulder were broken during battle from an exploding artillery shell. While recovering from this injury, the atheist Conwell converted to Christianity in large part due to the heroism exhibited by his loyal private assistant, John H. Ring.

Upon recovering from this latest injury, Colonel Conwell was assigned to Washington with a dispatch to General Logan. But Conwell's health compelled him to resign and retire from service, whereupon he received an honorable discharge, as well as a certificate for faithful and patriotic service from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

After the Civil War, Conwell studied law at the Albany Law School. Over the next several years, he worked as an attorney, journalist, and lecturer first in Minneapolis, then in Boston. Additionally, during this period, he published about 10 books, including campaign biographies of Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and James A. Garfield. In 1880, he was ordained as a Baptist minister and took over a congregation in Lexington, Massachusetts.