Halleck

&quote;Halleck originates nothing, anticipates nothing, to assist others; takes no responsibility, plans nothing, suggests nothing, is good for nothing.&quote; Lincoln's secretary of the navy Gideon Welles's harsh words embody the stereotype into which Union General-in-Chief Henry Wager Halleck has been cast by most historians since Appomattox. In Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff, originally published in 1962, Stephen Ambrose challenges the standard interpretation of this controversial figure. Ambrose argues persuasively that Halleck has been greatly underrated as a war theorist because of past writers' failure to do justice to his close involvement with movements basic to the development of the American military establishment. He concedes that &quote;by all the touchstones used to judge great captains of the past, Halleck was a failure,&quote; but maintains he was nonetheless &quote;the 'Old Brains' of the Union Army in the time of the testing of the nation.&quote;