In September he was sent to the southward with a considerable sum of money for the payment of the troops in Georgia. On the 24th he fell in with a detachment of D'Estaing's fleet, and was captured off Savannah. Being acquitted of all blame by the court-martial, he was appointed in March 1780 to the Nonsuch of 64 guns, and in July, when on a cruise on the coast of France, captured the corvette Hussard, and on the 14th the celebrated frigate Belle Poule, commanded by the same captain, the Chevalier de Kergariou Coatlès, who had formerly commanded the Danaë, and was now killed in the engagement. In the following year the Nonsuch was one of the fleet which relieved Gibraltar in April [see Darby, George]; and on the homeward voyage, while looking out ahead, chased and brought to action the French 74-gun ship Actif, hoping to detain her till some others of the fleet came up. The Nonsuch was, however, beaten off with heavy loss; but the Actif, judging it imprudent to pursue her advantage, held on her course to Brest. Wallace's bold attempt was considered as creditable to him as the not supporting him was damaging to the admiral; and in October he was appointed to the 74-gun ship Warrior, which in December sailed for the West Indies with Sir George Brydges Rodney (afterwards Lord Rodney) [q. v.], and took part in the battle of 12 April 1782. In 1783 Wallace returned to England, and for the next seven years was on half-pay. In the Spanish armament of 1790 he commanded the Swiftsure for a few months, and in 1793 the Monarch, in which he went to the West Indies, returning at the end of the year. On 12 April 1794 he was promoted to be rear-admiral and appointed commander-in-chief at Newfoundland, with his flag in the 50-gun ship Romney. With this one exception, his squadron was composed of frigates and smaller vessels, intended for the protection of trade from the enemy's privateers; so that when a powerful French squadron of seven ships of the line and three frigates, escaping from Cadiz in August 1796, came out to North America, he was unable to offer any serious resistance to it, or to prevent it doing much cruel damage to the fishermen, whose huts, stages, and boats were pitilessly destroyed (James, i. 409). Wallace was bitterly mortified; but the colonists and traders, sensible that he had done all that was possible under the circumstances, passed a vote of thanks to him. He returned to England early the next year, and had no further service. He had been made a vice-admiral on 1 June 1795, and was further promoted to be admiral on 1 Jan. 1801. He died in London on 6 Jan. 1803. Wallace has been sometimes confused with Sir Thomas Dunlop Wallace of Craigie, to whom he was only very distantly—if it all—related; and has been consequently described as the husband of Eglantine, lady Wallace [q. v.] It does not appear that Sir James Wallace was ever married.
[The memoir in Ralfe's Naval Biogr. i. 413, is exceedingly imperfect; the story of Wallace's services is here given from the passing certificate, commission and warrant-books, captains' letters and logs in the Public Record Office. See also Beatson's Naval and Military Memoirs, James's Naval History, and Troude's Batailles Navales de la France. Gent. Mag. 1803, i. 290; Navy Lists.]
WALLACE, Sir JOHN ALEXANDER DUNLOP AGNEW (1775?–1857), general, born about 1775, was the only son of Sir Thomas Dunlop Wallace, bart., of Craigie, Ayrshire, by his first wife, Eglantine, lady Wallace [q. v.]
He was given a commission as ensign in the 75th (highland) regiment on 28 Dec. 1787, his family having helped to raise it. He joined it in India in 1789, became lieutenant on 6 April 1790, and served in Cornwallis's operations against Tippoo in 1791–2, including the siege of Seringapatam. He acted as aide-de-camp to Colonel Maxwell, who commanded the left wing of the army. He obtained a company in the 58th regiment on 8 June 1796, and returned to England to join it. He went with it to the Mediterranean in 1798, was present at the capture of Minorca, and in the campaign of 1801 in Egypt. It formed part of the reserve under Moore, and was very hotly engaged in the battle of Alexandria. It came home in 1802. He was promoted major on 9 July 1803, and obtained a lieutenant-colonelcy in the 11th foot on 28 Aug. 1804. At the end of 1805 he was transferred to the 88th (Connaught rangers) to command a newly raised second battalion.
He went to the Peninsula with this battalion in 1809. With three hundred men of it he joined the first battalion at Campo Mayor, while the rest went on to Cadiz. The first battalion had suffered in the Talavera campaign; he set himself vigorously to restore it, and made it one of the finest corps in the army. It greatly distinguished itself at Busaco. It was on the left of the third division, and when the French had gained the ridge, and seemed to have cut the army in two, a charge made by the 88th, with one wing of the 45th, drove them down headlong. Wellington, riding up, said,
