Henry Halleck
General in Chief of the Union Armies in the American Civil War (1815-1872)
Henry Wager Halleck was a senior 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. Halleck served as the General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States from 1862 to 1864, and then became Chief of Staff for the remainder of the war when Ulysses S. Grant was appointed to that position.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Henry Halleck” is general in Chief of the Union Armies in the American Civil War (1815-1872). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Henry, Halleck and General, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “general in Chief of the Union Armies in the American Civil War (1815-1872)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1862 and 1864.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
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Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Henry Halleck”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Henry Halleck primary sources, Henry Halleck archive and Henry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Henry Halleck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.