The Three Men in the Life of Elizabeth Hamilton Halleck Cullum

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Henry Wager Halleck (January 16, 1815) - Elizabeth Hamilton (February 9, 1831)
(United States Public Domain)

Elizabeth Hamilton was four years old when her future husband entered West Point. She was the eleventh child (among a total of fourteen children) born to the fourth son (John Church 1792-1882) and the fifth child born to Alexander (1755 or 1757-1804) and Elizabeth (1757-1854) Hamilton. Elizabeth carried the name of her paternal grandmother “Elizabeth” Schuyler a remarkable woman herself and a woman the younger must have known in her lifetime as “Eliza” lived until 1854 dying at ninety-seven years old. One of Eliza’s dearest philanthropic projects was her co-establishment and serving as director of Graham Windhamthe first private orphanage in New York City. Her granddaughter made her grandmother proud before she left this earth with her philanthropic endeavor.

As Elizabeth was growing into a young lady Henry Halleck was building his career. He graduated 3rd in his class at West Point in 1839. Until the Mexican-American war he spent his time studying seacoast defenses, writing reports and giving lectures. After the war, he continued his military service in California until he resigned in 1854 when he realized he could make money as an attorney in one of San Francisco’s prominent law firms.

The law firm “Halleck, Peachy and Billings” proved to be one of the most lucrative at the time with Halleck preparing the legal arguments and writing the briefs, Archibald Carey Peachy (the Virginian) was the eloquent presenter in the courtroom and Frederick Billings the “graceful orator” that closed the cases. Suddenly in early 1861, the law firm was quietly dissolved, the firm’s assets were sold on April 22, 1861 - Halleck joined the Union Army while Peachy went back to Virginia and the dissolution of their law partnership was a mystery no more.

On April 12, 1855 forty-year old Henry Halleck married twenty-four year old Elizabeth Hamilton. Their only child, Henry Halleck Jr. was born the following year. On October 10th, 1861 the family was on a ship headed east and into the history of the civil war..

When Halleck joined the Union Army he became the wealthiest man in the service of his country. He also was one of the highest ranked officers with only Winfield Scott, George McClellan and John C. Frémont outranking him. By November of 1861, he was sent west to replace Frémont. Within time Lincoln realized that perhaps Halleck’s talents were more administrative than command and he stayed in Washington where as Gideon Welles describes him:

“he originates nothing, anticipates nothing… takes no responsibility, plans nothing, suggests nothing, is good for nothing.” Lincoln determined that he was “little more than a first rate clerk.” {6}

His life in his Georgetown Washington home was a lonely time for his wife and young son were staying in New York City during the duration and traveling was difficult for both. It was complicated by the transfer of his chief-of-staff and his best friend George W. Cullum, now assigned as Superintendent at West Point Military Academy. His family did join him until the fall of 1864 when the temperatures cooled enough in Washington to make it tolerable for his wife and son. In early 1865 Halleck's mother passed away, but he was busy in Washington handling the Presidential inauguration making it impossible for him to attend the funeral. He was reportedly at the bed side of President Lincoln but made no public statement nor left any reflections.

Immediately after the war he was assigned to Richmond (he would have preferred to take his family back to California) where he was embroiled in the controversy of the “Sherman-Johnson” surrender terms. He was even quoted as saying:

“an unfortunate mistake, and feared that there was some screw loose [in Sherman] again” He continued on “one of his [Sherman’s] grand excitements, worse even than in Kentucky & St. Louis”. {2}

Sherman got even when he marched his troops through Richmond and snubbed Halleck.

He was back in California in August 1865 serving the Division of the Pacific which most believed was military exile, but he was united with his family. He would be stationed there under March of 1869 when he was sent to Louisville, Kentucky to serve in the Military Division of the south. It was here on January 9th, 1872 where he passed away from complications of a liver disease. Some historians believe he may have suffered from hemochromatosis an iron shortage disease which sometimes leads to cirrhosis of the liver. For the last several years of his life he had many symptoms of the disease.

Elizabeth Halleck was forty-one when her husband died. She wrote her sister of his death:

“our dear one went to his rest full of faith and hope & passed off as an infant without a moan.” {2}

She even tried to smooth over the Halleck/Sherman controversy when she contacted General sherman by letter dated March 11, 1873. General Sherman responded:

“We both lived in turbulent times and were both strong natures and that we should have collided was to be expected but I have always endeavored to do him in life all possible honor, and in death to cherish in memory his better qualities.” {2}

She never wrote to General Sherman again nor did he contact her. Upon her husband's death she inherited $430,785.19 - (approximately $9 million in today’s dollars).

Elizabeth Halleck was turning the page to the next chapter in her life.

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General George W. Cullum (1809-1892) with wife Elizabeth
(United States Public Domain)

George Cullum was in his second year at West Point when his future wife was born. During the early years of the Civil War, Cullum was Chief-of-Staff for Henry Halleck and a friendship was established between the two men. Cullum wrote an obituary to his friend extolling his military and personal characteristics. He also became a dear friend and confident to his widow Elizabeth. At sixty-four years of age this confirmed bachelor jumped into marriage. His wife was 22 years younger than him and brought a nineteen year old son when they married in 1875.

Elizabeth was a wealthy woman and at times it would drive her husband “crazy”. She supported Halleck’s relatives as well as her own, yet giving away the money never seemed to give Cullum as much delight as his wife. However it appears that their marriage was a happy union as they couple worked together to honor Halleck’s memory. They worked to commemorate an Italian bust of Halleck and Henry Jr., led the commemoration ceremony when it was presented to the Society of California Pioneers in San Francisco.

Tragedy fell upon the family when Henry Jr. died on May 18, 1882. He was twenty-six when he died from Bright’s disease. Once again Elizabeth was the recipient of his estate valued at $200,00 that he had acquired.

Elizabeth had only a few more years to live for cancer invaded her body. At the time of her cancer it was believed there was no hope or cure so death was assumed and treatment was non-existent. Much like her grandmother had done earlier when she saw a problem with orphans, Elizabeth gathered a group of her wealthy friends with the desire to change attitudes and give hope for the treatment and research of cancer. Along with her friends and husband her gifts was the establishment of the New York cancer Hospital today known as the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

At fifty-three years of age she died on September 15, 1884. She was buried next to her husband and son (and on February 29, 1892) George Cullum would be buried by his friend, step-son and wife, Elizabeth united with the three men in her life in her death. In her will she provided funds for the cancer hospital to continue. General Cullum would give another $200,000 to the hospital in his wife’s memory. {7}

491_NEW-YORK_CANCER_HOSPITAL,_CENTRAL_PARK_WEST_AND_106TH_STREET.jpg

(United States Public Domain)


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Her Greatest Legacy

The New York Cancer Hospital
(now Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)
2018 - Statistics for 2018
1,228 - Attending Physicians
3,905 - Nurses
24,243 - Inpatient Stays
776,546 - Outpatient Visits


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Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Image from United States Department of
Health & Human Services
(United States Public Domain)



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Sources
1. Gettysburg Wives, by Daniel Grossman
2.
Commander of all Lincoln’s Armies; by John F. Marszalek (Link)
3. http://longislandgenealogy.com/henryhalleck.html
4. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Halleck-34
5. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3300/henry-wager-halleck
6.
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/henry-w-halleck
7. The Illustrated American, Volume 10 (Link)
8. https://www.mskcc.org/about/history-milestones
9. http://www.militarymuseum.org/Halleck.pdf
Wikipedia: Elizabeth Schuyler/Henry Halleck/Halleck, Peachy & Billings
 
You heard a lot of people dying of ' Bright's Disease ', before kidney disease was more definable. I'm not sure it was all that long ago, either, thinking of historical figures who died from it.

Poor Halleck. I've waffled back and forth about the man, perhaps wasn't as bad as I thought if he managed to marry a genuine philanthropist like Elizabeth, just a tad out of touch. Hate to generalize,, there just seems to be the whole ' out of touch thing ' characteristic, and through all time, among most uber wealthy. ( I said most ). Sherman? Stopped waffling about him an awfully long time ago. Guessing Elizabeth never had any illusions whatsoever. Bless her for giving it a shot.
 
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perhaps wasn't as bad as I thought if he managed to marry a genuine philanthropist like Elizabeth,
My opinion changed of Halleck after I read about Elizabeth. To have waited so long (in this case for both of her husbands) to be married - they both seemed to be happy marriages during some difficult days.
 
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