Henry Halleck Henry Wager Halleck ( January 16 , 1815 – January 9 , 1872 ) was a United States Army officer , scholar , and lawyer . A noted expert in military studies , he was known by a nickname that became derogatory , " Old Brains . " He 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 , he was a senior Union Army commander in the Western Theater and then served for almost two years as general - in - chief of all U . S . armies . Halleck became chief of staff to Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant , when he assumed the position of general - in - chief . Halleck was a cautious general who believed strongly in thorough preparations for battle and in the value of defensive fortifications over quick , aggressive action . He 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 , D . C . President Abraham Lincoln once described him as " little more than a first rate clerk . " Early life . Halleck was born on a farm in Westernville , Oneida County , New York , third child of 14 of Joseph Halleck , a lieutenant who served in the War of 1812 , and Catherine Wager Halleck . Young Henry 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 . He attended Hudson Academy and Union College , then the United States Military Academy . He became a favorite of military theorist Dennis Hart Mahan and was allowed to teach classes while still a cadet . He graduated in 1839 , third in his class of 31 cadets , as a second lieutenant of engineers . After spending a few years improving the defenses of New York Harbor , he wrote a report for the United States Senate on seacoast defenses , " Report on the Means of National Defence " , which pleased General Winfield Scott , who rewarded Halleck with a trip to Europe in 1844 to study European fortifications and the French military . Returning home a first lieutenant , Halleck gave a series of twelve lectures at the Lowell Institute in Boston that were subsequently published in 1846 as " Elements of Military Art and Science " . His work , one of the first expressions of American military professionalism , was well received by his colleagues and was considered one of the definitive tactical treatises used by officers in the coming Civil War . His scholarly pursuits earned him the ( later derogatory ) nickname " Old Brains . " During the Mexican - American War , Halleck was assigned to duty in California . During his seven - month journey on the transport USS " Lexington " around Cape Horn , assigned as aide - de - camp to Commodore William Shubrick , he translated Henri Jomini ' s " Vie politique et militaire de Napoleon " , which further enhanced his reputation for scholarship . He spent several months in California constructing fortifications , then was first exposed to combat on November 11 , 1847 , during Shubrick ' s capture of the port of Mazatlán ; Lt . Halleck served as lieutenant governor of the occupied city . He was awarded a brevet promotion to captain in 1847 for his " gallant and meritorious service " in California and Mexico . ( He would later be appointed captain in the regular army on July 1 , 1853 . ) He was transferred north to serve under General Bennet Riley , the governor general of the California Territory . Halleck was soon 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 . Halleck became one of the principal authors of the document . The California State Military Museum writes that Halleck " was [ at the convention ] and in a lone measure its brains because he had given more studious thought to the subject than any other , and General Riley had instructed him to help frame the new constitution . " He was nominated during the convention to be one of two men to represent the new state in the United States Senate , but received only enough votes for third place . During his political activities , he found time to join a law firm in San Francisco , Halleck , Peachy & Billings , which became so successful that he resigned his commission in 1854 . The following year , he married Elizabeth Hamilton , granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton and sister of Union general Schuyler Hamilton . Their only child , Henry Wager Halleck , Jr . , was born in 1856 . Halleck became a wealthy man as a lawyer and land speculator , and a noted collector of " Californiana . " He 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 . He built the Montgomery Block , San Francisco ' s first fireproof building , home to lawyers , businessmen , and later , the city ' s Bohemian writers and newspapers . He was a director of the Almaden Quicksilver ( mercury ) Company in San Jose , president of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad , a builder in Monterey , and owner of the 30 , 000 acre ( 120 km² ) Rancho Nicasio in Marin County , California . But he remained involved in military affairs and by early 1861 he was a major general of the California Militia . Civil War . Western Theater . As the Civil War began , Halleck was nominally a Democrat and was sympathetic to the South , but he had a strong belief in the value of the Union . His reputation as a military scholar and an urgent recommendation from Winfield Scott earned him the rank of major general in the regular army , effective August 19 , 1861 , making him the fourth most senior general ( after Scott , George B . McClellan , and John C . Frémont ) . He was assigned to command the Department of the Missouri , replacing Frémont in St . Louis on November 9 , and his talent for administration quickly sorted out the chaos of fraud and disorder left by his predecessor . He set to work on the " twin goals of expanding his command and making sure that no blame of any sort fell on him . " Historian Kendall Gott described Halleck as a department commander : Halleck established an uncomfortable relationship with the man who would become his most successful subordinate and future commander , Brig . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant . The pugnacious Grant had just completed the minor , but bloody , Battle of Belmont and had ambitious plans for amphibious operations on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers . Halleck , by nature a cautious general , but also judging that Grant ' s reputation for alcoholism in the prewar period made him unreliable , rejected Grant ' s plans . However , under pressure from President Lincoln to take offensive action , Halleck reconsidered and Grant conducted operations with naval and land forces against Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862 , capturing both , along with 14 , 000 Confederates . Grant delivered the first significant Union victory of the war . 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 . Gen . Don Carlos Buell , but which was not granted . He briefly relieved Grant of field command of a newly - ordered expedition up the Tennessee River after Grant met Buell in Nashville , citing rumors of renewed alcoholism , but soon restored Grant to field command ( pressure by Lincoln and the War Department may have been a factor in this about - face ) . Explaining the reinstatement to Grant , Halleck portrayed it as his effort to correct an injustice , not revealing to Grant that the injustice had originated with him . When Grant wrote to Halleck suggesting " I must have enemies between you and myself , " Halleck replied , " You are mistaken . There is no enemy between you and me . " Halleck ' s department performed well in early 1862 , driving the Confederates from the state of Missouri and advancing into Arkansas . They held all of West Tennessee and half of Middle Tennessee . Grant , not yet aware of the political maneuvering behind his back , regarded Halleck as " one of the greatest men of the age " and Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman described him as the " directing genius " of the events that had given the Union cause such a " tremendous lift " in the previous months . This performance can be attributed to Halleck ' s strategy , administrative skills , and his good management of resources , and to the excellent execution by his subordinates — Grant , Maj . Gen . Samuel R . Curtis at Pea Ridge , and Maj . Gen . John Pope at Island Number 10 . Military historians disagree about Halleck ' s personal role in providing these victories . Some offer him the credit based on his overall command of the department ; others , particularly those viewing his career through the lens of later events , believe that his subordinates were the primary factor . On March 11 , 1862 , 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 . Grant ' s Army of the Tennessee was attacked on April 6 at Pittsburg Landing , Tennessee , in the Battle of Shiloh . With reinforcements from Buell , on April 7 Grant managed to repulse the Confederate Army under Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P . G . T . Beauregard , but at high cost in casualties . Pursuant to an earlier plan , Halleck arrived to take personal command of his massive army in the field for the first time . Grant was under public attack over the slaughter at Shiloh , and Halleck replaced Grant as a wing commander and assigned him instead to serve as second - in - command of the entire 100 , 000 man force , a job which Grant complained was a censure and akin to an arrest . Halleck proceeded to conduct operations against Beauregard ' s army in Corinth , Mississippi , called the Siege of Corinth because Halleck ' s army , twice the size of Beauregard ' s , moved so cautiously and stopped daily to erect elaborate field fortifications ; Beauregard eventually abandoned Corinth without a fight . General in chief . In the aftermath of the failed Peninsula Campaign in Virginia , President Lincoln summoned Halleck to the East to become General - in - Chief of all the Union armies , as of July 23 , 1862 . Lincoln hoped that Halleck could prod his subordinate generals into taking more coordinated , aggressive actions across all of the theaters of war , but he was quickly disappointed , and was quoted as regarding him as " little more than a first rate clerk . " Grant replaced Halleck in command of most forces in the West , but Buell ' s Army of the Ohio was separated and Buell reported directly to Halleck , a peer of Grant ' s . Halleck began transferring divisions from Grant to Buell ; by September , four divisions had moved , leaving Grant with 46 , 000 men . In Washington , Halleck continued to excel at administrative issues and facilitated the training , equipping , and deployment of thousands of Union soldiers over vast areas . He was unsuccessful , however , as a commander of the field armies or as a grand strategist . His cold , abrasive personality alienated his subordinates ; one observer described him as a " cold , calculating owl . " Historian Steven E . Woodworth wrote , " Beneath the ponderous dome of his high forehead , the General would gaze goggle - eyed at those who spoke to him , reflecting long before answering and simultaneously rubbing both elbows all the while , leading one observer to quip that the great intelligence he was reputed to possess must be located in his elbows . " This disposition also made him unpopular with the Union press corps , who criticized him frequently . Halleck , more a bureaucrat than a soldier , was able to impose little discipline or direction on his field commanders . Strong personalities such as George B . McClellan , John Pope , and Ambrose Burnside routinely ignored his advice and instructions . A telling example of his lack of control was during the Northern Virginia Campaign of 1862 , when Halleck was unable to motivate McClellan to reinforce Pope in a timely manner , contributing to the Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run . It was from this incident that Halleck fell from grace . Abraham Lincoln said that he had given Halleck full power and responsibility as general in chief . " He ran it on that basis till Pope ' s defeat ; but ever since that event he has shrunk from responsibility whenever it was possible . " In Halleck ' s defense , his subordinate commanders in the Eastern Theater , whom he did not select , were reluctant to move against General Robert E . Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia . Many of his generals in the West , other than Grant , also lacked aggressiveness . And despite Lincoln ' s pledge to give the general in chief full control , both he and Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton micromanaged many aspects of the military strategy of the nation . Halleck wrote to Sherman , " I am simply a military advisor of the Secretary of War and the President , and must obey and carry out what they decide upon , whether I concur in their decisions or not . As a good soldier I obey the orders of my superiors . If I disagree with them I say so , but when they decide , is my duty faithfully to carry out their decision . " Chief of staff . 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 U . S . armies . Grant and the War Department took special care to let Halleck down gently . Their orders stated that Halleck had been relieved as general in chief " at his own request . " Now that there was an aggressive general in the field , Halleck ' s administrative capabilities complemented Grant nicely and they worked well together . Throughout the arduous Overland Campaign and Richmond - Petersburg Campaign of 1864 , Halleck saw to it that Grant was properly supplied , equipped , and reinforced on a scale that wore down the Confederates . He agreed with Grant and Sherman on the implementation of total war toward the Southern economy and endorsed both Sherman ' s March to the Sea and Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan ' s destruction of the Shenandoah Valley . Alongside Grant , Sherman , and Sheridan , Henry Halleck may be regarded as one of the fathers of modern warfare . Postbellum career . After Grant forced Lee ' s surrender at Appomattox Court House , Halleck was assigned to command the Military Division of the James , headquartered at Richmond . He was present at Lincoln ' s death and a pall - bearer at Lincoln ' s funeral . He lost his friendship with William Sherman when he quarreled with him over Sherman ' s tendency to be lenient toward former Confederates . In August 1865 he was transferred to the Division of the Pacific in California , essentially in military exile . While holding this command he accompanied photographer Eadweard Muybridge to the newly purchased Russian America . He and Senator Charles Sumner are credited with applying the name " Alaska " to that region . In March 1869 , he was assigned to command the Military Division of the South , headquartered in Louisville , Kentucky . Henry Halleck died at his post in Louisville . He is buried in Green - Wood Cemetery , Brooklyn , New York , and is commemorated by a street named for him in San Francisco and a statue in Golden Gate Park . He left no memoirs for posterity and apparently destroyed his private correspondence and memoranda . His estate at his death showed a net value of $ 474 , 773 . 16 ( $ in 2017 dollars ) . His widow , Elizabeth , married Col . George Washington Cullum in 1875 . Cullum had served as Halleck ' s chief of staff in the Western Theater and then on his staff in Washington .