48 Facts About Henry Halleck

Henry Wager Halleck was a senior United States Army officer, scholar, and lawyer.

Henry Halleck was an important participant in the admission of California as a state and became a successful lawyer and land developer.

Early in the American Civil War, Halleck was a senior Union Army commander in the Western Theater.

Henry Halleck commanded operations in the Western Theater from 1861 until 1862, during which time, while the Union armies in the east were defeated and held back, the troops under Halleck's command won many important victories.

However, Henry Halleck was not present at the battles, and his subordinates earned most of the recognition.

The only operation in which Henry Halleck exercised field command was the siege of Corinth in the spring of 1862, a Union victory which he conducted with extreme caution, which allowed the Confederate force to escape.

Henry Halleck developed rivalries with many of his subordinate generals, such as Grant and Don Carlos Buell.

In July 1862, following Major General George B McClellan's failed Peninsula Campaign in the Eastern Theater, Halleck was promoted to general-in-chief.

Henry Halleck served in this capacity for about a year and a half.

Henry Halleck was a cautious general who believed strongly in thorough preparations for battle and in the value of defensive fortifications over quick, aggressive action.

Henry Halleck was a master of administration, logistics, and the politics necessary at the top of the military hierarchy, but exerted little effective control over field operations from his post in Washington, DC As general-in-chief he refused to give orders to his subordinate commanders, instead offering advice, but leaving the final decisions up to the generals in the field.

In March 1864, Grant was promoted to general-in-chief, locating his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac in the field, while Henry Halleck was relegated to chief of staff in Washington, providing the necessary administrative support to fulfill Grant's orders to the various armies.

Young Henry Halleck detested the thought of an agricultural life and ran away from home at an early age to be raised by an uncle, David Wager of Utica.

Henry Halleck attended Hudson Academy, Union College in Schenectady, New York, then the United States Military Academy.

Henry Halleck became a favorite of military theorist Dennis Hart Mahan and was allowed to teach classes while still a cadet.

Henry Halleck graduated in 1839, third in his class of 31 cadets, as a second lieutenant of engineers.

Henry Halleck spent several months in California constructing fortifications, then was first exposed to combat on November 11,1847, during William Shubrick's capture of the port of Mazatlan; Lt.

Henry Halleck was awarded a brevet promotion to captain in 1847 for his "gallant and meritorious service" in California and Mexico, and would later be appointed captain in the regular army on July 1,1853.

Henry Halleck was transferred north to serve under General Bennet Riley, the governor general of the California Territory.

Henry Halleck was appointed military secretary of state, a position which made him the governor's representative at the 1849 convention in Monterey where the California state constitution was written.

Henry Halleck became one of the principal authors of the document.

Henry Halleck became a wealthy man as a lawyer and land speculator, and a noted collector of "Californiana".

Henry Halleck obtained thousands of pages of official documents on the Spanish missions and colonization of California, which were copied and are now maintained by the Bancroft Library of the University of California, the originals having been destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

Henry Halleck built the Montgomery Block, San Francisco's first fireproof building, home to lawyers, businessmen, and later, the city's Bohemian writers and newspapers.

Henry Halleck was a director of the Almaden Quicksilver Company in San Jose, president of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, a builder in Monterey, and owner of the 30,000 acre Rancho Nicasio in Marin County.

Henry Halleck established an uncomfortable relationship with the man who would become his most successful subordinate and future commander, Brig.

Henry Halleck obtained a promotion for him to major general of volunteers, along with some other generals in his department, and used the victory as an opportunity to request overall command in the Western Theater, which he currently shared with Maj.

Henry Halleck's department performed well in early 1862, driving the Confederates from the state of Missouri and advancing into Arkansas.

On March 11,1862, Henry Halleck's command was enlarged to include Ohio and Kansas, along with Buell's Army of the Ohio, and was renamed the Department of the Mississippi.

Pursuant to an earlier plan, Henry Halleck arrived to take personal command of his massive army in the field for the first time.

Henry Halleck proceeded to conduct operations against Beauregard's army in Corinth, Mississippi, called the siege of Corinth because Henry Halleck's army, twice the size of Beauregard's, moved so cautiously and stopped daily to erect elaborate field fortifications.

The army waited so long to begin and their movement was so slow that by the time they reached the city, Beauregard had already abandoned Corinth without a fight, deceiving Henry Halleck into thinking that Confederate reinforcements were arriving by train, when, in fact, the trains were taking away the Rebel army.

In Washington, Henry Halleck continued to excel at administrative issues and facilitated the training, equipping, and deployment of thousands of Union soldiers over vast areas.

Henry Halleck was unsuccessful as a commander of the field armies or as a grand strategist.

On March 12,1864, after Ulysses S Grant, Halleck's former subordinate in the West, was promoted to lieutenant general and general-in-chief, Halleck was relegated to chief of staff, responsible for the administration of the vast US armies.

Henry Halleck took up this position, and instructed other generals to ignore orders coming from Sherman.

General George B McClellan, who, when he was General-in-Chief, appointed Halleck to replace Fremont in the West, said of Halleck:.

Henry Halleck could advise and suggest, and he sometimes ordered subordinates where and when to make a move, but he never was comfortable doing it himself.

Henry Halleck seldom worked openly, and as a department commander, he was always at headquarters, separated and aloof from the men.

Henry Halleck's decisions were the result of neither snap judgments nor friendly discussion, but calculated thinking.

Henry Halleck was prone to violent hatred and never cultivated close relationships.

Therefore, according to Fuller, Henry Halleck's being called to Washington by Lincoln to be General-in-Chief was a blessing to the North, because it eliminated from the field a sub-standard general and left Grant free to develop his strategic thinking, and, by taking Vicksburg and opening the Mississippi River, to deal the Confederacy a blow from which it never recovered.

Henry Halleck saw himself as a subordinate, not a decision maker, a follower, not a leader.

Henry Halleck was present at Lincoln's death and a pall-bearer at Lincoln's funeral.

Henry Halleck lost his friendship with General William T Sherman when he quarreled with him over Sherman's tendency to be lenient toward former Confederates.

Henry Halleck became ill in early 1872 and his condition was diagnosed as edema caused by liver disease.

Henry Halleck is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York, and is commemorated by a street named for him in San Francisco and a statue in Golden Gate Park.

Henry Halleck left no memoirs for posterity and apparently destroyed his private correspondence and memoranda.