What does 'Lew' mean in this context?

General Lewis Wallace, known as Lew. Imagine if my full name was Jonathon Smith. You might say, "I am meeting Smith tomorrow. John." He's giving the surname, and then adding the first (nick)name to clarify who he is talking about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace

It looks like the abbreviated first name of Wallace. Probably Lewis. I'm not sure if it was typical when the text was written, but today it's not common to abbreviate a name with a full stop. Today if we were to shorten "Lewis Wallace" it would probably be "Lew Wallace".

The question has already been answered, but it seems that you’re reading Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs, and I just want to say that I love that. Grant was the greatest general my country has ever produced, and an incredible man all around. A less than stellar president, but truly an American hero all around.

I could be mistaken, but I think that is referring to Lewis Wallace (not to be mistaken with the later mentioned W.H.L. Wallace). We don't typically add a stop for nicknames though.

That’s a guy’s name. He wrote Ben Hur. Was governor of New Mexico for a spell

Is it an abbreviation of a longer name? Is this Wallace person first referred to earlier in the book, and this is a shortened way of referring to him later on? 

His first name? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew\_Wallace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace) Is this an older book? It's not common nowadays to use a period when using a shortened version of someone's name, but it used to be done sometimes.

Probably an old-timey abbreviation of [Lewis Wallace](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace). It looks like there's two people with the last name of "Wallace": Lewis "Lew" Wallace and W. H. L. Wallace. Normally, you'd just use their last name, but the author has to distinguish them. Nowadays, you would just write "Lew", but during the Civil War, abbreviations needed a period more often. So you see names like "Charles" abbreviated to "Chas." or "William" to "Wm.".

Lew Wallace, a Civil War general better known as the author of the novel Ben Hur.

Is this Grant's book or something else?

I’ve never seen it, it’s probably just a specific word to the book.

Could it be an abbreviation of lieutenant?

That one is difficult because even with "Lew" being shortened for "Lewis", it's not too common to put a period after it if it's the name he actually goes by. You would often see a period used if you were writing something on a name tag or tomb stone to imply that it should be "Lewis" but there was no room for the full name. Obviously, that's not the case in a novel. So there must be more backstory as to why a period was used there. Perhaps it is a sign of respect.

It is odd to see this type of abbreviation, so you're not off base to get clarification.

Is this from Grant's memoirs? It would have been not an entirely unprecedented abbreviation, complete with period, for that era. When Wallace, who was famous for being a Civil War commander but was later to become far more famous as a novelist, published his most popular book, *Ben-Hur,* in 1880, that's exactly how his name was printed on the title page: "LEW. WALLACE".

I think "Lew. Wallace" is just a shortened version of the name "Lewis Wallace". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace

Period at the end of abbreviation is technically correct. Which is the best kind of correct. The fact that we don’t use “correct” punctuation for nicknames and shortened names these days doesn’t stop this writer from having earned a gold punctuation star back in their day.

It's an abbreviation of "Lewis". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace

It’s an abbreviated first name - [Lewis “Lew” Wallace](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lew_Wallace)