HALLECK, Henry Wager, American sol dier: b. Wcsternville, N. Y„ 16 Jan. 1815; d. Louisville, Ky., 9 Jan. 1872. He' was graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1839; was assistant professor of engineering at West Point; was assistant to the Board of Engineers at Washington 1840-41, and in 1841-46 assist ant engineer in the repair of the New York harbor fortifications. In the Mexican War he was on the Pacific Coast, and in 1847-49 was secretary of state for California under the mili tary governments of Generals Mason and Riley. In 1849 he was a member of the California Constitutional Convention and of the committee which drafted the constitution of that State. After service as inspector and engineer of lighthouses (1852-54) and as engineer of the board for fortifications on the Pacific Coast he resigned from the service in 1854, and practised law in San Francisco. In 1855 he was president of the Pacific and Atlantic Railroad and in 1850-61 director-general of the Almaden quicksilver mines. On the outbreak of the Civil War he re-entered the army, and in November 1861, was a u, •inted commander of the Department of the Y issouri, then in a state of thorough disorganization. He quickly re
duced. the department to order, outlined the Western campaign' of 1862, directed this, cam paign in person from 11 April, and took Corinth, with its 15 miles of entrenchments, on 30 May. In July he became general-in-thief of the armies of the United States; and henceforth directed from Washington the movements of the generals in the field, till, in March 1864, he was superseded by General Grant. Halleck was chief of staff till 1865, commanded the military division of the James in 1865, that of the Pacific, 1865-69, and that of the South from 1869 until his death. He wrote a work on