HALLECK, Fitzgreene (1790-1867), an American poet, was born at Guildford, Connecticut, July 8, 1790. By his mother he was descended from John Eliot, the “Apostle of the Indians.” At an early age he became clerk in a store at Guildford, and at eighteen he entered a banking-house in New York. Having made the acquaintance of Joseph Rodman Drake in 1819, he assisted him under the signature of “Croaker junior” in contributing to the Hew York Evening Post the humorous series of “Croaker Papers.” In 1821 he published his longest poem, Fanny, a satire on local politics and fashions in the measure of Byron’s Don Juan. He visited Europe in 1822-23, and after his return published anonymously in 1827 a volume of poems in which were included “Alnwick Castle” and “Burns.” From 1824 to 1849 he was confidential agent of John Jacob Astor, who named him one of the trustees of the Astor Library, and left him an annuity of 200 dollars, on which he retired to Guildford, where he lived with an unmarried sister. In 1864 he published in the Hew York Ledger a poem of 300 lines entitled “Young America.” He died at Guildford, November 19, 1867. The poems of Halleck are written with great care and finish, and manifest the possession of a fine sense of harmony and of genial and elevated sentiments.
Editions of his poems appeared in 1836, 1842, 1849, 1858, and 1860. He is also the author of an edition of Byron with notes and a memoir, and of two volumes of Selections from the British Bocts. His Life, by J. G. Wilson, appeared in 1869....
HALLECK, Henry Wager (1815-1872), an American general, was born at Waterville, Oneida county, New York, January 15, 1815. After studying a short time at Union College, he in 1835 entered the West Point military academy, whence he was in 1839 promoted to the army as second lieutenant in the corps of engineers, being at the same time appointed assistant professor of engineering at the academy. In the following year he was made an assistant to the board of engineers at Washington, and from 1841 to 1844 he was employed in connexion with the fortification of New York harbour. In 1.845 he was sent by the Government to examine the principal military establishments of Europe, and during his absence he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. After his return he in the winter of 1845-46 delivered at the Lowell Institute, Boston, a course of twelve lectures on the science of war, published in 1846 under the title Elements of Military Art and Science, and republished with additions in 1861. On the outbreak of the Mexican war in 1846 he a3 military engineer accompanied the expedition to California and the Pacific coast, where he distinguished himself not only as an engineer but by his administrative skill as secretary of state, and by his presence of mind and bravery in several skirmishes with the enemy. In 1847 his services were recognized by promotion to the rank of captain. He com tinued for several years to act on the staff of General Riley in California, holding at the same time the office of secretary of state of the province; and he took a leading part in framing the State constitution of California, on its being admitted into the Union. In 1852 he was appointed inspector and engineer of lighthouses, and in 1853 he wa3 promoted captain of engineers. He, however, in 1854 resigned his commission in order to devote his chief attention to the practice of law, which he had already for some time carried on; and so great was his success in his profession that the firm of which he was senior partner soon obtained one of the largest legal businesses in the State. He was also from 1850 director of the New Almaden quicksilver mine, and in 1855 he became president of the Pacific and Atlantic Railroad from San Francisco to San José. On the outbreak of the civil war he was in August 1861 appointed major-general of the United States army, and in the following November was appointed commander of the western department, where he conducted the campaign with great energy and with such uniform success against the Confederates that in 1862 they evacuated Corinth, which they had strongly fortified. In July of the same year he was appointed general-in-chief of the armies of the United States —a position he held till March 1864, when he was succeeded by Grant and was appointed chief of the staff. In April 1865 beheld the command of the military division of the James and in August of the same year of the military division of the Pacific, which he retained till March 1869, when he was transferred to that of the south, a position he held till his death at Louisville, January 9, 1872.
Besides his work on the Science of War, General Halleck was the author of Bitumen, its Varieties, Properties, and Uses, 1841; The Mining Laws of Spain and Mexico, 1859; a translation of De Fooz Onthe Laιo of Mines, with an introduction, 1860; International Law, 1861; a translation of Jomini’s Life of Kapκ>leon, 1864; and a Treatise on International Law and the Laws of War, prepared far the use of Schools and Colleges, 1866.
[275 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]