Henry Wager Halleck (16 January 1815-9 January 1872) was a Major-General of the US Army during the American Civil War who served as Commanding General of the US Army from 1862 to 1864, succeeding George B. McClellan and preceding Ulysses S. Grant.
Biography[]
Henry Halleck was born in Oneida County, New York on 16 January 1815 to a Yankee family, and he graduated from West Point third in a class of 31 cadets in 1839. In 1847, he served as Lieutenant-Governor of Mazatlan, Mexico when it was occupied by the US Army during the Mexican-American War, and he was one of the writers of the state constitution of California in 1849. Halleck married the granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton (and the sister of general Schuyler Hamilton) and became a lawyer in California, serving in the state militia. Halleck was a Democratic Party member and a supporter of the American South when the American Civil War broke out, but he had a strong belief in the value of the Union, and he decided to continue serving in the US Army. Halleck was known as a cautious general and, while commanding the Missouri Department of the Union Army, rejected many of General Ulysses S. Grant's plans due to Grant's status as an alcoholic. In early 1862, the Confederates were driven from Missouri, and Union forces invaded Arkansas. After the failure of George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign of 1862, Lincoln sent Halleck to become the new Commanding General of the US Army, and he was unable to coordinate strategies despite his administrative skills. In 1864, Grant had his revenge against Halleck by becoming the new Commanding General of the US Army, replacing the bureaucratic Halleck. On 12 March 1864, he became Chief-of-Staff of the US Army, and he decided to team up with the aggressive Grant, combining his administrative skills with Grant's tactical brilliance to defeat the Confederacy in 1864-1865. From 1865 to 1869, he commanded US forces on the Pacific coast, and he commanded the Military Division of the South in Louisville, Kentucky from 1869 until his 1872 death.