US soldier, lawyer, and US representative, born in Delphi, New York, USA. He trained at West Point (1852), and left the army to practise law. He returned to the service (1861) and saw action at both Bull Run battles, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. He commanded the Union right-wing corps at Gettysburg and led the Army of Georgia, a component of Sherman's army, through Georgia and the Carolinas (18645). After the war, he took up his law practice in Brooklyn and served three terms in the US House of Representatives (Democrat, New York, 186973, 18835).
Henry Warner Slocum (September 24, 1827 – April 14, 1894), was a Union general during the American Civil War and later served in the United States House of Representatives from New York.
Early life and career
Slocum was born in Delphi, a hamlet in Onondaga County, New York.
Slocum had studied law while bored at garrison duty in the army.
Civil War
Early commands
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Slocum was appointed colonel of the 27th New York Infantry, which was a two-year regiment mustered in at Elmira, New York. Franklin's 1st Division, I Corps during the Peninsula Campaign and the 1st Division, VI Corps at the Seven Days Battles, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Gaines' Mill.
Slocum was appointed major general of volunteers on July 4, 1862, the second youngest man in the Army to achieve that rank. On October 20, 1862, he assumed command of the XII Corps after its commander, Maj. Mansfield, was killed at the Battle of Antietam, a battle where Slocum's division was kept in reserve. He led the corps in the Battle of Fredericksburg (where he fortunately arrived too late on the scene to see any real action in that Union catastrophe) and the Battle of Chancellorsville, where he commanded the right wing, including his corps and those of Maj. Slocum executed well and maneuvered his wing into the rear of Gen.
Slocum was known as an unassertive, exceedingly careful, by-the-book officer. When Hooker was relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac, Slocum, being the most senior general in that army, was in line for command.
Gettysburg
At the Battle of Gettysburg, Slocum received some criticism for his corps' slow march to the battlefield, which led to his derisive nickname, "Slow Come". Slocum later claimed that he had been unaware of the start of the battle, possibly because of an "acoustic shadow" caused by intervening hills.
Historian Larry Tagg claims that Slocum "spent the entire afternoon vacillating, neither bringing forward his corps nor going ahead himself to take command by virtue of his rank." Some historians have explained Slocum's indecision by citing the "Pipe Creek Circular", Meade's contingency plan for a defensive line in Maryland, saying that it directed Slocum to stop at Two Taverns and into thinking that Meade wished to avoid a general engagement at Gettysburg. However, Meade's supplementary order to Slocum, which placed the V Corps as well as the XII Corps under his direction, explicitly made any retrograde movement dependent on the decisions of Maj. (Reynolds had been killed earlier that day, but Slocum was unaware of that fact. The actions in Gettysburg made any immediate provisions of the circular irrelevant.)
It took the arrival of three additional messengers at Slocum's headquarters before he moved into action. Howard, considered Slocum's response to Howard's request to be "anything but honorable, soldierly, or patriotic." Some students of the battle believe Slocum could have mitigated the rout of the XI Corps if he had arrived earlier than 6 p.m. on July 1 and had marched both of his divisions directly up the Baltimore Pike to provide reinforcements. Historian Edwin Coddington, otherwise critical of Slocum's dilatory response, found that it was highly doubtful whether they could have deployed beyond the town in time to mount a counterattack in support of the retreating XI Corps.
As the ranking general on the field, Slocum commanded the army for about six hours after the fighting that day, until Meade arrived after midnight. Meade planned an attack from the Power's Hill area into the Confederate left flank, to be led by Slocum the following day, utilizing the V Corps and the XII Corps as the army's "right wing". Slocum resisted the suggestion, claiming the terrain was too difficult for an assault, but he continued to fancy himself the right wing commander for the rest of the battle, leaving Maj.
When Meade ordered Slocum to send the entire XII Corps to assist the defense against Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's assault on the Union right flank on July 2, Slocum wisely recommended holding one brigade back in its position on Culp's Hill.
Western Theater
After Gettysburg, the XI Corps and XII Corps were sent to Tennessee in the Western Theater, under the command of Joseph Hooker. When Slocum found out he was going to be serving under Hooker, he submitted two letters of resignation to President Abraham Lincoln stating his derogatory opinion of Hooker as both an officer and a gentleman. Lincoln refused the resignation and assured Slocum he would not have to serve under Hooker. A compromise was reached whereby one division of the corps, under Slocum, was assigned to protect the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad while the other division served directly under Hooker. During the summer of 1864, Slocum commanded the District of Vicksburg and the XVII Corps of the Department of the Tennessee. Sherman selected Slocum to command the new XX Corps (formed from the remnants of the XI Corps and XII Corps). Slocum's former XII Corps men cheered their previous commander's return. When Atlanta fell to Sherman on September 2, 1864, Slocum's corps was the first to enter the city.
At the start of the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, Sherman left Slocum in command of 12,000 troops in Atlanta as Sherman pursued Confederate Lt. Gen. Sherman later placed Slocum in command of the newly created Army of Georgia, comprised of the XX Corps and the XIV Corps from the Army of the Cumberland, which served as the left wing in Sherman's March to the Sea and Carolinas Campaign. The other wing, consisting of the XV and XVII Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, was commanded by Oliver O. Upon reaching Savannah, Slocum recommended to Sherman that Confederate Gen. But Sherman rejected Slocum's plan, and Hardee escaped, to fight again at Bentonville.
During the Carolinas Campaign, Slocum's army was heavily engaged at the Battle of Averasborough and the Battle of Bentonville, where Slocum successfully held off a surprise assault by Gen. After the Confederate surrender, Slocum commanded the Department of the Mississippi before resigning from the Army on September 28, 1865.
Postbellum life
Slocum ran as the Democratic candidate for secretary of state of New York in 1865, but was defeated by fellow Gettysburg General Francis C. Slocum worked in Congress for the exoneration of Maj.
Henry Slocum died in Brooklyn, New York, and is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery, where Gen. Fort Slocum, New York was also named for Slocum.
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