The fighting 111Henry Halleck was known in the regular army
before the Civil War as 'Old Brains' for his impressive
intellect McClellan appointed him commander of the
Department of Missouri in November 1861 and his
leadership in the western campaigns so impressed
Lincoln that he became the President's chief of staff
in July 1861. (Massachusetts Commandery Military
Order of the Loyal Legion and the US Army
Military History Institute)
as general-in-chief of the Union armies.
McClellan was a youthful, self-absorbed, but
vigorous and intelligent commander who
shared the President's political and strategy
vision of a limited war for limited goals. He
moved quickly to stabilize the political and
military situation in the west. He appointed
like-minded commanders for the war's most
important commands.
McClellan replaced John C. Fremont, who
had issued an unauthorized emancipation
proclamation in Missouri, with Major-
General Henry Halleck. At 46, Halleck, a
West Point graduate, had already
demonstrated brilliance as a writer of
military theory. When the war broke out, he
was perhaps the most sought-after Union
commander. He would be sent to St Louis
to bring some semblance of order to the
chaos. As a result of the reorganization of
military departments in the west, Halleck
A close prewar friend of McClellan, who shared his
superior's limited-war beliefs, Don Carlos Buell became
commander of the Department of Ohio and played an
instrumental role in bringing about success in the west.
(Arm Ronan Picture Library)would be responsible for the area that
stretched westward from the Cumberland
River through Missouri.
Major-General Don Carlos Buell
commanded the newly organized Department
of the Ohio, which included the region
stretching from the Appalachian Mountains
to the Cumberland River, but included all of
Kentucky. Since his graduation from West
Point in 1841, Buell was one of the few
regular army officers in the western
command and was a staunch advocate of
limited war. He had acquired eight slaves
through his prewar marriage and was a
conservative Democrat, like McClellan and
Halleck. McClellan thought that sending him
to Kentucky might placate Kentuckians.
Although its command in the west was
divided, the Union had twice the number of
troops as the Confederates with which to
conduct affairs in the respective departments,
which stretched some 500 miles (800km).
The Confederates meanwhile sought to
unify the command of the western region