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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK.

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each was ready at the first intimation to men, rescued two naval officers and sevobey the call of his country. Henry eral marines who were prisoners of war, Wager Halleck, was born in the year captured the enemy's flag, two Mexican 1816, in Weston, Oneida county, in the officers and the Governor's archives, the State of New York. After passing some Governor barely escaping in his night time at Union College, he entered the clothes. At Todos Santa, he led into Military Academy at West Point, as a action the main body of Colonel Burton's cadet in 1835, graduated with distinction forces. In the naval descent upon Main 1839, and was brevetted 2d Lieuten-zatlan, he acted as aid to Commodore. ant of Engineers. He remained for a Shubrick, and afterwards as Chief of year at the Academy as Assistant Pro- Staff and Lieutenant-Governor of the fessor of Engineering. In 1841, he was city. As Chief Engineer he planned and Assistant to the Chief Engineer, General directed the construction of the fortificaTotten, in Washington. His "Papers on tions at that place. In 1848, he was Practical Engineering," were published at brevetted Captain, "for gallant conduct this time by the Engineer Department. in affairs with the enemy on the 19th For the next three years he was employ- and 20th days of November, 1847, and ed on the fortifications of New York for meritorious service in California." harbor. He then went to Europe in company with Marshal Bertrand, by whom he was introduced to Marshal Soult, then Prime Minister of Louis Philippe, and received every facility in examining the military works of France. After prosecuting similar investigations in Germany, Italy, and England, he returned to the United States at the end of the Mexican war. In 1844, Congress published his "Report on Military Defences." In 1845, he was appointed 1st Lieutenant in the Engineer corps, and was chosen that year by the Committee of the Lowell Institute, at Boston, to deliver one of the regular courses of lectures before the institution. He took for his subject "Military Art and Science." He incorporated the lectures the following year in a volume published at New York, with an introduction on the “Justifiableness of War." The Mexican war then occurring immediately after the battle of Palo Alto, he was sent to California and the Pacific Coast, where he served during the war in both a civil and military capacity. He was present in various engagements with the enemy, particularly at San Antonio, where he marched with about 30 mounted volunteers 120 miles in 28 hours, surprised the enemy's garrison of several hundred

He was Secretary of State of the Province of California, under the military governments of Generals Kearney, Mason, and Riley, from 1847 to the end of 1849; and was a leading member of the Convention in 1849 to form, and of the Committee to draft, the Constitution of the State of California. From 1847 to 1850, he directed and superintended the entire collection of the public revenues in California, amounting to several millions of dollars. His decisions in these collections, assailed at the time, were sustained by the Supreme Court. In July, 1853, he was appointed Captain of Engineers. Seeking more active employment than the army afforded, he resigned August 1st, 1854, and devoted himself to the legal profession. At the outbreak of the rebellion, he was the principal partner in the law firm of Halleck, Peachey and Billings, of San Francisco. He still continued his attention to literary pursuits, and had just published an important book on International Law. In December, 1860, he was appointed Major-General of militia in California, and acted in that capacity till the receipt of his commission as Major-General of the regular army. The latter was dated August 19th, 1861, ranking him third on the list of general officers

of that rank; General McClellan and tence; Surgeon J. J. B. Wright, Chief General Fremont, both appointed the 14th of the previous May preceding him. The familiarity of General Halleck with civil affairs, and his legal acumen, no doubt, favored his appointment to a position where judgment in council was as likely to be called for as ability in the field. In his political opinions, General Halleck was understood to belong to the Democratic party.

Medical Director; T. P. Andrews, Chief Paymaster; Lieutenant-Colonel J. B. McPherson, Assistant Engineer; Colonel George Thom and Colonel R. D. Cutts of the Topographical Department; Captain F. D. Callender, Chief of Ordnance, and Lieutenant-Colonel James Totten, Chief of Artillery, whose services in the campaigns of General Lyons in the State will be remembered; were the other members.

One of the earliest of General Halleck's orders for the regulation of the army excited no little interest at the time, as it was taken as a manifestation of his opinions on the disputed question, now rapidly growing in importance, of the treatment of the slave population or their reception and encouragement by the military authorities within the lines. This much talked of General Order No.

Summoned from San Francisco by the Government, General Halleck arrived at Washington on the 5th of November, and was immediately after, as we have stated, placed in the charge of the Department of Missouri. Thither he proceeded, taking command at St. Louis on the 19th, when he at once became actively engaged in placing the army at his disposal on an efficient footing to check the aggressive movements of the rebels and the spirit of revolt in the State, which had been en-3, dated at St. Louis the 20th of Novemcouraged by the renewed efforts of General Price in the southwest. The staff of General Halleck included a number of West Point officers of distinction, several of whom had been his classmates in that institution. At the head of these was Brigadier-General George W. Cullum, an eminent engineer officer who had been engaged in the construction of the most important forts of the country, and had served on the staff of General Scott. The assistant chief of staff, BrigadierGeneral Schuyler Hamilton, a graduate of West Point, was one of the aids of General Scott through the Mexican war. Not at the time attached to the regular army, on the breaking out of the rebellion, he went to Washington as a private in the New York 7th Militia, when he was again taken on the staff of General Scott with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Captain J. C. Kelton, Assistant Adjutant General at Headquarters; Captain W. McMichael and S. M. Preston, Assistant Adjutant General; Major Robert Allen, Chief Quartermaster; Captain Thomas J. Haines, Chief of Subsis

ber, ran as follows: "I. It has been represented that important information respecting the numbers and condition of our forces is conveyed to the enemy by means of fugitive slaves, who are admitted within our lines. In order to remedy this evil, it is directed that no such persons be hereafter permitted to enter the lines of any camp, or of any forces on the march, and that any now within such lines be immediately excluded therefrom. II. The General Commanding wishes to impress upon all officers in command of posts and troops in the field the importance of preventing unauthorized persons of every description from entering and leaving our lines, and of observing the greatest precaution in the employment of agents and clerks in confidential positions." The meaning of this order was intelligible enough, but it was thought by many to be ill judged as it obviously abandoned an important means of weakening the resources of the enemy, who, if their slaves remained quietly at home in their usual agricultural pursuits, might with less inconveni

GENERAL HALLECK'S ORDERS.

ence to themselves take the field against the national forces. Those who looked to the abolition of slavery as a necessity for the adequate suppression of the Rebellion, of course, naturally regarded the order with suspicion and dislike. That the order was not intended as a political measure, appears from a letter addressed by General Halleck on the 26th of the following month to General Asboth, then in camp at Rolla, Missouri, in reference to the course of the latter officer in delivering to his master a fugitive who had sought refuge in the camp. "This," wrote General Halleck, "is contrary to the intent of General Order No. 3. The object of those orders is to prevent any person in the army from acting in the capacity of negro catcher or negro stealer. The relation between the slave and his master is not a matter to be determined by military officers, except in the single case provided for by Congress. This matter in all other cases must be decided by the civil authorities. One object of keeping fugitive slaves out of our camps is to keep clear of all such questions. Masters or pretended masters must establish the rights of property to the negro as best they may, without our assistance or interference, except where the law authorizes such interference. Order No. 3 does not apply to the authorized private service of officers, nor to negroes employed by proper authority in camps; it applies only to fugitive slaves'. The prohibition to admit them within our lines does not prevent the exercise of all proper offices of humanity, in giving them food and clothing outside, where such offices are necessary to prevent suffering."

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Another series of orders by General Halleck was directed to the relief of the Union men of the State, who had been driven from their homes by the lawless insurgents, and to the repression of the wanton injuries and annoyance in the destruction of railway and other pro

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perty inflicted within the lines of the army. The appearance presented in the streets of St. Louis by the Union refugees, exiled and despoiled of their means of subsistence. by the tyranny of the Confederates in the southwestern counties, is described as pitiable in the extreme. The sympathy and sense of justice of General Halleck were aroused by the spectacle, and he determined to administer a remedy which would in some degree relieve the present distress and tend to check the continuance of the evil. His order of December 4th provided a practical remedy. "The law of military retaliation," it ran, "has fixed and well established rules. While it allows no cruel or barbarous acts on our part in retaliation for like acts of the enemy, it permits any retaliatory measures within the prescribed limits of military usage. If the enemy murders and robs Union men we are not justified in murdering and robbing other persons who are, in a legal sense, enemies to our government, but we may enforce on them the severest penalties justified by the laws of war for the crimes of their fellow rebels. The rebel forces in the southwestern counties of this State have robbed and plundered the peaceful noncombatant inhabitants, taking from them their clothing and means of subsistence. Men, women and children have alike been stripped and plundered. Thousands of such persons are finding their way to this city barefooted, half clad and in a destitute and starving condition. Humanity and justice require that these sufferings should be relieved, and that the outrages committed upon them should be retaliated upon the enemy. The individuals who have directly caused these sufferings are at present beyond our reach; but there are in this city, and in other places within our lines, numerous wealthy secessionists who render aid, assistance and encouragement to those who commit these outrages. They do not themselves rob and plunder, but

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