Halleck, Henry Wager, << HAL ihk, HEHN ree WAY juhr >> (1815-1872), was a Union general in the American Civil War. He served without distinction as general in chief of the Union Army from 1862 to 1864.
Halleck was born in Westernville, New York, near Rome, on Jan. 16, 1815. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1839 and served in California during the Mexican War (1846-1848). In the Civil War, Halleck’s first major command was in the Department of the Missouri, a military area that included Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota. As general in chief, he failed to develop strategy with the imagination and aggressiveness that President Abraham Lincoln desired. Lincoln appointed General Ulysses S. Grant to replace Halleck in 1864. Halleck became Army chief of staff.
Halleck also was a military scholar. He wrote and translated several books on war and became known as “Old Brains.” He died in Louisville, Kentucky, on Jan. 9, 1872.
