HALLECK, HENRY W. 



375 



Association was formed, some five years ago, 

 he took a warm interest in its success, believ- 

 ing that its influence on literary studies would 

 bevery great, and that it would conciliate and 

 unite our scholars throughout the country; 

 and year by year, whatever may have been 

 the pressure of other work, he manifested his 

 devotion to the Association by his honored 

 presence, and by his valuable labors. He was 

 an admired contributor to our critical journals, 

 as the North American Review, the Bibliotheca 

 Sacra, the New-Englander, and the Nation. 

 In 1860 he published a Greek Grammar, based 

 on the German work of Prof. Curtius, of Kiel, 

 but amplified and elaborated with great and 

 searching care ; and in 1869 he put forth the 

 same work abridged, "Elements of the Greek 

 Language " (1869), but containing his later 

 and riper views. It was also his intention to 

 edit some of his favorite Greek authors, and, 

 had he lived to realize this, he would have be- 

 stowed a great boon on American students. 

 To his extensive and profound attainments in 

 learning, he added the charm of a humble and 

 sincere piety, and such was the loveliness of 

 his character that he perhaps never had an 

 enemy, certainly he never wilfully made one. 



HALLECK,* HEVRY WAGER, LL. D., a dis- 

 tinguished officer of the Army in the late civil 

 war, and at his death the senior major-gen- 

 eral on the active list, United States Army, born 

 in Westernville, Oneida County, New York, 

 January 15, 1815 ; died in Louisville, Ky., the 

 headquarters of the Military Division of the 

 South, January 9, 1872. 



After receiving an ordinary common-school 

 education at Hudson Academy, N. Y., and 

 passing through a part of the course at Union 

 College, he entered the United States Military 

 Academy July 1, 1835, from which he was 

 graduated third in a class of thirty-one, and 

 thence promoted to the Army July 1, 1839, a 

 second-lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. 

 His marked ability and skill as an instructor 

 while a cadet caused his being retained as an 

 Assistant Professor of Engineering at the Acad- 

 emy till June 28, 1840. He then, for a year, 

 was assigned as an assistant to the Board of 

 Engineers at Washington, D. 0., where he pre- 

 pared a work on "Bitumen: its Varieties, 

 Properties, and Uses," which embraced all 

 then known of the application of asphalt to 

 military structures. From Washington he was 

 transferred to assist in the construction of the 

 fortifications of New York Harbor, where he 

 remained till 1846, except while on a tour of 

 examination, in 1845, of public works in Eu- 

 rope. During his absence he was promoted, 

 June 1, 1845, to a first-lieutenancy. Upon his 

 return to the United States the committee of 

 the Lowell Institute at Boston, Mass., attracted 

 by Halleck's able report on " Coast Defence " 



* This biographical sketch of General Halleck is abridged 

 from the admirable biographical notice of him in the Army 

 and Navy Journal, written by his intimate friend and asso- 

 ciate, General G. W. Outturn. 



published by Congress, invited him to deliver 

 a course of twelve lectures on the Science of 

 War. These he published in 1846 in a volume, 

 with an introductory chapter on the Justifi- 

 ableness of War, under the title of " Elements 

 of Military Art and Science," a second edition 

 of which, with the addition of much valuable 

 matter, including notes on the Mexican and 

 Crimean Wars, appeared in 1861. On the out- 

 break of the Mexican War, Lieutenant Halleck 

 was detailed as the engineer for military oper- 

 ations on the Pacific coast, and sailed with 

 Captain Tompkins's artillery command in the 

 transport Lexington, which after a seven 

 months 1 voyage reached her destination at 

 Monterey, Cal. During this long and tedious 

 passage round Cape Horn he undertook, partly 

 as a military study and partly for the occupa- 

 tion of a mind not to be amused with trifles, a 

 translation from the French of Baron Jomini's 

 " Vie Politique et Militaire de Napoleon," 

 which in 1864, with the aid of a friend, he 

 revised and published in four octavo volumes 

 with an atlas. 



After partially fortifying Monterey as a port 

 of refuge for our Pacific fleet and base for land 

 incursions into California, Lieutenant Halleck 

 took an active part, both civil and military, in 

 all the affairs on this distant theatre of war. 

 As Secretary of State under the military gov- 

 ernments of Generals Mason and Riley, he 

 displayed great energy, high administrative 

 qualities, excellent judgment, and admirable 

 adaptability to his varied and onerous duties. 

 As a military engineer he accompanied several 

 expeditions, particularly that of Colonel Bur- 

 ton into Lower California, being engaged in 

 the skirmishes of Palos Prietos, Urias, Todos 

 Santos, and San Antonio, having in twenty- 

 eight hours with a few mounted volunteers 

 made a forced march of 120 miles to the latter 

 place and surprised a considerable Mexican 

 garrison, the governor barely escaping capture. 

 Besides his engineer duties he performed those 

 of aide-de-camp to Commodore Shubrick dur- 

 ing naval and military operations on the Pacific 

 coast, including the capture of Mazatlan, of 

 which for a time Halleck was lieutenant-gov- 

 ernor; and was also chief of Colonel Burton's 

 staff on his Lower California expedition. For 

 these gallant and meritorious services he was 

 brevetted a captain, to date from May 1, 1847. 

 After the termination of hostilities and the 

 acquisition of California by the United States, 

 a substantial government became necessary. 

 General Riley. in military command of the 

 territory, called a convention of delegates to 

 meet at Monterey, September 1, 1849, to frame 

 a State constitution. This convention, after 

 about six weeks' consideration, agreed upon 

 a constitution which was submitted to and 

 adopted by the people, and by act of Congress 

 September 9, 1850, California was admitted 

 into the union of American States. In this 

 entire movement, one of great importance 

 both to the new State itself and to the whole 



