Henry Wager Halleck
1816 - 1872

from The New York Times, January 10, 1872, p. 1:


                OBITUARY
              ------------
     Major-General Henry W. Halleck.
     Gen. HALLECK died at his residence, in
Louisville, at 8:25 o'clock last evening, of con-
gestion of the brain, superinduced by disease of
the liver, with which he had been afflicted for
some time.
     HENRY WAGER HALLECK was born at Western-
ville, near Utica, N.Y., in the year 1816.  His
early education was very slight, and it was by
hard study for a brief term at Union College
that he prepared himself for adittance to the
United States Military Academy at West Point, 
which occurred in 1835.  Young HALLECK soon
distinguished himself at the Academy, and
graduated third in 1839 in a class of 
thirty-one, being appointed Brevet Second
Lieutenant of Engineers.  So well ground-
ed was he in this branch of the service
that HALLECK held the position of Assistant
Professor of Engineering at the Academy until
June, 1840.  From 1841 to 1844 he was employed
by the Government on the fortifications in New-
York Harbor, in repairing Fort Wood, Bedloe's
Island, and works on Governor's Island.  He
visited Europe in 1845, by order of the War De-
partment, for the purpose of examining the
principal military establishments of the chief
countries.  On his return to the United States in
the Winter of 1845 he delivered a series of lec-
tures before the Lowell Institute of Boston, on
the "Science of War."  His success in this en-
deavor led HALLECK to publish a volume en-
titled "The Elements of Military Art and Sci-
ence," with an introductory chapter on the
"Justifiableness of War."  On Jan. 1, 1845, he
was commissioned a First Lieutenant of
Engineers, and during the following Summer
proceeded to California and the Pacific
coast on active service.  The outbreak of the
Mexican war found him still on the Pacific
coast, and he remained in active civil and mili-
tary service during all the campaigns under
SCOTT and TAYLOR.  For gallant conduct at the
affairs od Palas Prietas and Urias, Nov. 18 and
19, 1847, he was brevetted a Captain, having at-
tained the grade of First Lieutenant in 1845;
and he subsequently greatly distinguished him-
self at San Antonio and Todos Santos, having at
the former place with a few mounted volun-
teers, with whom he made a forced march of
120 miles in twenty-eight hours, sur-
prised a Mexican garrison of several hun-
dred men,  and nearly succeeded in cap-
turing the Governor.  He also acted on the
staff of Commodore SHUBRICK in the naval and
military operations on the Pacific coast in
1847-48, and in that capacity participated in the
capture of Mazatlan, of which place he was
made Lieutenant-Governor.  He was Secretary
of State of the province of California, under the
military Governments of Gens. MASON and
RILEY, from 1847 to December, 1849 and during
the same period acted as Auditor of the public
revenue.  He eheld a seat in the Convention
which met in 1849 to adopt a state Constitution,
and as a member of the Drafting Committee
had a large share in the preparation of that
instrument.  Between 1850 and 1854 he dis-
charged the duties of Judge Advocate and in-
spector of light-houses; and in the latter year,
having then attained the rank of Captain of En-
gineers, he resigned his commission and com-
menced the practice of law in San Francisco.
For many years he was the senior partner of
one of the largest law firms in California, and
was also Director-General of the New-Almaden
quicksilver mines.  Soon after the breaking out
of the civil war he was appointed a Major-Gen-
eral in the United States Army, his commission
bearing date Aug. 17, 1861; and in November he
succeeded FREMONT in the command of the
Western Department, fixing his head-quarters
at St. Louis.
     In April, 1862, having directed the campaign
in the South-west from his permanent head-
quarters since the preceeding February, he as-
sumed command of the army before Corinth,
the investment of which place he conducted to
a successful issue.  The disastrous ending of
the campaign of the Chickahominy having sug-
gested to the President the appointment of a
person of large military experience to reside in
Washington and there direct the movements of
the various Generals in the field, he was on
July 11 appointed General-in-Chief of all
the land forces of the United States, and
on the 15th of the month entered
upon his new duties.  He soon afterward visit-
ed MCCLELLAN's army at Harrison's Landing
on the James River, and upon returning to
Washington ordered the advance of Gen. POPE
toward the Rapidan, under cover of which MC-
CLELLAN was enabled to retire down the Penin-
sula, unmolested, to Yorktown.  In addition to
the publication already mentioned, Gen. HAL-
LECK has produced a Practical Treatise on Bitu-
men and its Uses, a Report on Military Defenses;
translations of the Mining Laws of Spain and
Mexico, and De Fooz on the Laws of Mines, and a 
treatise entitled International Law and the Laws 
of War, (1861.)