he was commanding general far longer than his successor, Ulysses S. Grant, he is remembered only as a failed man, ignored by posterity.

 

In the summer of 1862, President Lincoln called General Henry W. Halleck to Washington, D.C., to take command of all Union armies in the death struggle against the Confederacy. For the next two turbulent years, Halleck was Lincoln's chief war advisor, the man the President deferred to in all military matters. Yet, despite the fact that he was commanding general far longer than his successor, Ulysses S. Grant, he is remembered only as a failed man, ignored by posterity. In the first comprehensive biography of Halleck, the prize-winning historian John F. Marszalek recreates the life of a man of enormous achievement who bungled his most important mission. When Lincoln summoned him to the nation's capital, Halleck boasted outstanding qualifications as a military theorist, a legal scholar, a brave soldier, and a California entrepreneur. Yet in the thick of battle, he couldn't make essential decisions. Unable to produce victory for the Union forces, he saw his power become subsumed by Grant's emergent leadership, a loss that paved the way for Halleck's path to obscurity. Harnessing previously unused research, as well as the insights of modern medicine and psychology, Marszalek unearths the seeds of Halleck's fatal wartime indecisiveness in personality traits and health problems. In this brilliant dissection of a rich and disappointed life, we gain new understanding of how the key decisions of the Civil War were taken, as well as insight into the making of effective military leadership.

Table of contents :  Contents ......Page 8 Prologue......Page 12 1. Born to Gentility, Educated to Elitism......Page 15 2. Army Engineer at Home and Abroad......Page 41 3. War and Peace in California......Page 59 4. From Soldier to Businessman......Page 78 5. From Peace to War......Page 97 6. Commander of the Western Theater......Page 116 7. Supreme Commander......Page 140 8. War by Washington Telegraph......Page 184 9. The Western Generals Bring Success......Page 210 10. Chief of Staff under Grant......Page 229 11. From War to Peace......Page 256 Bibliographical Essay......Page 284 Abbreviations Used in the Notes......Page 288 Notes......Page 290 Acknowledgments......Page 338 Illustration Credits......Page 342 Index......Page 344