Researching Levin Lewis

At about age 22, Lewis moved to Missouri and briefly practiced law before becoming a Methodist minister. He was principal of Plattsburg College from 1856 to 1859. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he organized a company of the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard and was elected captain. In April 1861, he was elected colonel of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment of the 5th Division of the Missouri State Guard, a one-year regiment. After the end of the regiment's term, he was briefly an aide-de-camp for Major General Earl Van Dorn and then was elected a captain of the Confederate 7th Missouri Infantry. He was wounded four times at the Battle of Lone Jack, Missouri on August 16, 1862. The regiment soon was broken up and Lewis became a major of another 7th Missouri Infantry, later designated the 16th Missouri Infantry. He became colonel of that regiment on March 24, 1863.

Lewis was wounded and captured in an attack on the Union force at Helena, Arkansas on July 4, 1863. He was released from the prisoner of war camp at Johnson's Island, Ohio and exchanged in September 1864. Lewis declined an appointment from Confederate Missouri Governor Thomas Caute Reynolds to the Confederate Senate and returned to the army. Lewis was assigned to duty on May 16, 1865 by General E. Kirby Smith so that he could command an infantry brigade with the appropriate rank, although the war was effectively ended and the promotion could not be made through a legal appointment by Jefferson Davis or confirmation by the Confederate Senate.

After the war, Lewis returned to the ministry and at various times was president of Arcadia Female College, Arkansas Female College and Marvin College (Waxahachie, Texas). He also was a professor of English for a time at Texas A&M University. In 1884, he was appointed pastor of the First Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas.