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G.O. Haller
(1819 - 1897)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Command Billet: Commanding HQ Guard
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 4th United States Infantry on 17 November 1839, served as Regimental Adjutant from 1 January 1843 to 10 September 1845, and was promoted to First Lieutenant on 12 July 1846. He was honored by brevets to Captain (6 September 1847) and Major (13 September 1847) for his actions at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, respectively, in the Mexican-American War. He was promoted to Captain on 1 January 1848, served in the Pacific Northwest through much of the 1850s, and by 1860 was senior officer in command of the post at Fort Mojave near Sacaton in Arizona Territory.
He was appointed Major, 7th US Infantry on 25 September 1861.
On the Campaign
He was in command of the Headquarters Guard, Army of the Potomac on the Campaign.
The rest of the War
He was dismissed from the Army by the Secretary of War on 25 July 1863 for "disloyal conduct and utterance of disloyal sentiments," a charge he strenuously refuted to no immediate avail.
After the War
By 1870 he was a merchant on Whidbey Island, in Puget Sound, Washington.
He was exonerated of the charges behind his 1863 dismissal and reinstated as Colonel of Infantry as of 1 July 1879 to rank from 19 February 1873, by a Joint Resolution of Congress (3 March 1879). He was assigned to the 23rd United States Infantry on 11 December 1879 and retired on 6 February 1882, then 63 years old, and lived in Seattle.
References & notes
His service basics from Heitman.1 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 and 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph as Major, 7th US (c. 1861) now in the collection of the US Army Heritage and Education Center.
He married Henrietta Maria Cox (1824-1910) in 1846 and they had 5 children.
More on the Web
His book, The Dismissal of Major Granville O. Haller, of the Regular Army of the United States by order of the Secretary of War, in Special Orders, no. 331, of July 25th, 1863. Also, a brief memoir of his military services, and a few observations (1863) is available online from the Hathi Trust; the original volume is at the library of Congress.
Also, see his retirement home in Seattle and a brief bio about him and his life in Washington.
Birth
01/31/1819; York, PA
Death
05/02/1897; Seattle, WA; burial in Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, WA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, p. 491 [AotW citation 30019]