Russell Herman Conwell (February 15, 1843 – December 6, 1925) was an American Baptist minister, orator, philanthropist, author, lawyer, and writer.

Hailing from a New England family of English descent[1] and the son of Massachusetts farmers, Conwell left home to attend the Wilbraham Wesleyan Academy and later Yale University.

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".

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.

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.

[2]: 70  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.

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.

[3] 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.

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.

Additionally, during this period, he published about 10 books, including campaign biographies of Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and James A. Garfield.

Conwell's magnetic personality, high descriptive, practical, and engaging sermons soon drew crowds so large that the church outgrew its capacity to seat all that wanted to come.

The girl's mother told Reverend Conwell that Hattie May had been saving money to help build a bigger church and gave him the coins.

[6] On June 28, 1886, a nearby house at the corner of Broad and Berks streets, referred to as The Temple because the property owner did not want the house to be called a church until the mortgage was fully paid, was investigated for purchase by the Wiatt Mite Society, which was organized for the purpose of taking the 57 cents and enlarging on them sufficiently to buy the property for the Primary Department of the Sunday school.

In September 1887, at the Centennial Celebration of the United States Constitution, money received from the Wiatt Mite Society was given "for the success of the new Temple".

As the membership continued to grow to over one thousand and the Sunday School to even greater numbers, a larger facility was needed.

The original inspiration for "Acres of Diamonds", his most famous essay, occurred in 1869 when Conwell was traveling in the Middle East.

[10] The work began as a speech, "at first given," wrote Conwell in 1913, "before a reunion of my old comrades of the Forty-sixth Massachusetts Regiment, which served in the Civil War and in which I was captain.

This theme is developed by an introductory anecdote, credited by Conwell to an Arab guide, about a man who wanted to find diamonds so badly that he sold his property and went off in futile search for them.

Conwell elaborates on the theme through examples of success, genius, service, or other virtues involving ordinary Americans contemporary to his audience: "dig in your own backyard!"

[15] After Conwell's death, proceeds from this speech were dedicated to the Sunday Breakfast Association, a homeless shelter in Philadelphia.

[16] The film Johnny Ring and the Captain's Sword (1921) is based upon Conwell's writings regarding his experiences in the Civil War.