Harry Gringo is a pseudonym of Henry Augustus Wise (1819–1869) author and United States Navy officer born in Brooklyn, New York. The Wise family moved to Virginia and his Naval career began in 1834 as a midshipman. Henry served in the U.S.-Mexican War as a Lieutenant on board the razee Independence seeing action in the Gulf of California. He dedicated his consequent naval service in becoming an expert in gunnery. In 1850 he married Catherine Brooks Everett.
When the American Civil War broke out he considered serving with his home state of Virginia when they left the Union but opted to stay in the U.S. Navy as a Captain. Promoted to Commander of the Niagara in 1862 he was soon ordered to destroy the Gosport Navy Yard, near his old home. In 1864 President Abraham Lincoln appointed Wise chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, and was promoted to Captain in 1866 he held the Ordnance position until his resignation in 1868. He died in Naples, Italy, the following year.