Henry Warner Slocum

For the American tennis player, see Henry Slocum (tennis player)

Henry Warner Slocum (September 24 1827 – April 14 1894), was a United States politician who served in the House of Representatives from New York and as a Union general during the American Civil War.

Early life and career

Slocum was born in Delphi, a hamlet in Onondaga County, New York. He attended Cazenovia Seminary and worked as a teacher. He obtained an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he did well academically—considerably better than his roommate, Philip Sheridan. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Artillery on July 1 1852. He served in the Seminole War in Florida and at Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, and was promoted to first lieutenant on March 3 1855. He resigned his commission October 31 1856, and settled in Syracuse, New York.

Slocum had studied law while bored at garrison duty in the army. He was admitted to the bar in 1858 and practiced in Syracuse. He served as the county treasurer and was elected to the State assembly in 1859. During this period he also served as an artillery instructor in the New York Militia with the rank of colonel.

Civil War

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. He led the regiment in Maj. Gen. David Hunter's division at the First Battle of Bull Run, where his regiment suffered 130 casualties and he was wounded in the thigh. In August 1861, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and commanded the 2nd Brigade, William B. Franklin's 1st Division, I Corps during the Peninsula Campaign and the 1st Division, VI Corps at the Seven Days Battles. He was appointed major general of volunteers on July 4 1862, the second youngest man in the Army to achieve that rank. Still in command of the 1st Division, he led it at the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of South Mountain. He assumed command of the XII Corps during the Battle of Antietam when its commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph K. Mansfield, was killed. 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.

Slocum was known as a cautious general who paid particular attention to details and protocol. By the summer of 1863 he was relatively young, at 36, to be a major general, but he possessed a manner that inspired confidence in his men. When Joseph Hooker was relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac, Slocum, being one of the most senior officers in the army, was in line for command. However, he was not seriously considered, and agreed to serve under George G. Meade.Tagg, p. 144.

At the Battle of Gettysburg, Slocum received criticism for his corps' slow march to the battlefield. (This led to his derisive nickname, "Slow Come".) Some historians believe he could have mitigated the rout of the XI Corps if he had arrived earlier than 6 p.m. on July 1 1863. As the ranking general on the field, he commanded the army for about six hours 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. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams temporarily in command of his XII corps during this period. 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. This brigade, under Brig. Gen. George S. Greene, was able to hold out against a massive Confederate assault and saved the critical hill for the Union.

After Gettysburg, remnants of the XI Corps and XII Corps were combined to form the new XX Corps and it was 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 threatened to resign, but served with distinction at the Battle of Lookout Mountain. In May 1864, he was placed in command of the post at Vicksburg, Mississippi. When Hooker resigned from the army in 1864, William T. Sherman selected Slocum to replace him, commanding the XX Corps. When Atlanta fell to Sherman on September 2 1864, Slocum's corps was the first to enter the city.

After the capture of Atlanta, Sherman promoted Slocum, placing him in command of the newly created Army of Georgia. The Army of Georgia, comprised of the XX Corps and the XIV Corps from the Army of the Cumberland, served as one of the two wings in Sherman's March to the Sea and Carolinas Campaigns. The other wing, consisting of the XV and XVII Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, was commanded by Oliver O. Howard. During the Carolinas Campaign, Slocum's army was heavily engaged at the Battle of Averasborough and the Battle of Bentonville. After the war, Slocum resigned 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. Barlow. After resuming work as a lawyer, and declining an offer to return to the U.S. Army as a colonel, he was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-first and Forty-second Congresses (March 4 1869 – March 3 1873). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1872. Instead, he resumed the practice of law in Syracuse. He was appointed president of the department of city works of Brooklyn, New York in 1876. He was again elected as a Representative at Large from New York to the Forty-eighth Congress (March 4 1883 – March 3 1885). He was president of the Board of Trustees of the New York State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home in Bath, New York, and was a member of the Board of Gettysburg Monuments Commissioners.

Henry Slocum died in Brooklyn, New York, and is interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. A steamship, the General Slocum, was named for him; it had a disastrous fire onboard in 1904 with much loss of life. Fort Slocum, New York was also named for Slocum.

References

Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0882-7.
Tagg, Larry, The Generals of Gettysburg, Savas Publishing, 1998, ISBN 1-882810-30-9.

Notes

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Henry Warner Slocum

Early life and career

Civil War

Postbellum life

References

Notes