Henry Warner Slocum Sr. (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. During the war, he was one of the youngest major generals in the Army and fought numerous major battles in the Eastern Theater and in Georgia and the Carolinas. While commanding a regiment, a brigade, a division, and a corps in the Army of the Potomac, he saw action at First Bull Run, the Peninsula Campaign, Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, Antietam, and Chancellorsville.
At Gettysburg, he was the senior Union general in the field, under Gen. George G. Meade. During the battle, he held the Union right from Culp's Hill to across the Baltimore Pike. His successful defense of Culp's Hill was crucial to the Union victory at Gettysburg. After the fall of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, splitting the southern Confederacy, Slocum was appointed military commander of the district. Slocum participated in the Atlanta campaign and was the first commander to enter the city on September 2, 1864. He then served as occupation commander of Atlanta.
Slocum was appointed the commander of the left wing of Gen. William T. Sherman's famous "March to the Sea" to Savannah on the Atlantic coast through Georgia and afterwards turning north through the Carolinas, commanding the XIV and XX Corps, comprising the Army of Georgia. During this campaign, he captured the then state capital of Georgia, Milledgeville, and the Atlantic coast seaport of Savannah.
In the Carolinas campaign, Slocum's army saw victories in the battles of Averasborough and Bentonville, North Carolina. The "March to the Sea" and the Carolinas campaign were crucial to the overall Union victory in the Civil War. After the surrender of Confederate forces, Slocum was given command of the Department of Mississippi. Slocum declined an officer's appointment in the postwar Regular Army. He was a successful political leader in the North, a businessman and railroad developer.
Early life and career Slocum was born in Delphi Falls, a hamlet in Onondaga County, New York. His father was Matthew B. Slocum, and his mother was Mary Ostrander. He was the sixth of eleven children. He attended the State Normal School in Albany and the Cazenovia Seminary in Madison County. At the age of 16, he received a Public School Teacher's Certificate from the County Superintendent of Schools, and worked occasionally as a teacher for the next five years.Slocum, Charles E. The Life and Services of Major-General Henry Warner Slocum. Toledo: Slocum Publishing, 1913, p. 8.
Congressman Daniel Gott appointed Slocum to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1848, where he did well academically, graduating seventh of 43 in the class of 1852. He tutored his roommate, cadet Philip Sheridan, in mathematics. In his memoirs, Sheridan credited Slocum with helping him pass his examination and graduate from the academy. While at West Point, Slocum expressed opposition to slavery, which was an unpopular position since many of the cadets were from the South.Address of General O. O. Howard before Rankin Post, Grand Army of the Republic, Brooklyn, April 29, 1894.
Slocum 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, South Carolina. While stationed there, he went on leave to marry Clara Rice in 1854.Brown, pp. 1801–1802. They had four children including Henry. Slocum was promoted to first lieutenant on March 3, 1855. He resigned his commission October 31, 1856, and settled in Syracuse, New York.Eicher, p. 491.
While serving in the army, Slocum studied law under B. C. Presley, who was later elected Supreme Court Justice of South Carolina. Slocum was admitted to the bar in 1858 and practiced in Syracuse. He served as the county treasurer and was a member of the New York State Assembly (Onondaga Co., 2nd D.) in 1859. During this period he also served as an artillery instructor in the New York Militia with the rank of colonel.Warner, pp. 451–453.
Civil War
Early commands At the outbreak of the Civil War, Slocum was appointed colonel of the 27th New York Infantry Regiment, which was a two-year regiment mustered in at Elmira, New York. He led the regiment at First Bull Run, where it was in the thick of the fighting, losing 130 men. Slocum himself was badly wounded, and after recuperating, he got command of a brigade in General William B. Franklin's division in the Army of the Potomac. When Franklin became commander of the new VI Corps in May 1862, Slocum took over command of the division, leading it with distinction during the Seven Days Battles.Tagg, pp. 143–146. General Fitz-John Porter complimented Slocum's division in the Virginia campaigns as "one of the best divisions in the Army."
On July 25, 1862, Slocum was promoted to major general of volunteers to rank from July 4, the second youngest man in the Army to achieve that rank. The VI Corps stayed in Washington D.C. during the Northern Virginia Campaign, although one of Slocum's brigades was sent down to Bull Run and attacked and routed by the Confederates on August 26. At Crampton's Gap during the Battle of South Mountain on September 14, 1862, Slocum assaulted the enemy line behind a stone wall and routed it. Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, corps commander, described the victory as "the completest victory gained up to that time by any part of the Army of the Potomac."
At Antietam, Slocum's division was not significantly engaged. The following month, he was named permanent commander of the XII Corps, which had lost its commander, General Joseph K. Mansfield at Antietam. During the Fredericksburg Campaign, Slocum and the XII Corps were stationed around Harper's Ferry and had no involvement in the Battle of Fredericksburg. At the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 1–5, 1863, Slocum commanded the Union right wing, including the XII Corps and the V Corps of Maj. Gen. George G. Meade and the XI Corps of Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, a combined force of 46,000 men. Slocum executed well and maneuvered his wing into the rear of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army, halting the Confederate advance.
When Joe Hooker was removed from command of the army on June 28, Slocum, as the ranking corps commander, would normally be in line to succeed him, but the War Department instead appointed George Meade as army commander, apparently feeling that he was a more aggressive fighter. Slocum graciously consented to serving under Meade, his junior in rank.
Gettysburg
Maj. Gen. Slocum played a decisive role in the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1–3, 1863. His XII Corps troops' defense of Culp's Hill on the Union right is credited with ensuring Meade's ultimate victory against Lee's army.
Despite this, some modern historians of Gettysburg have questioned the actions of Slocum on the afternoon of July 1, 1863. They allege that he failed to come to the immediate aid of General Howard's XI Corps and engage Confederate troops in a timely way at Gettysburg. Information from recently accessed records, however, including Gen. Meade's archives, shows that Slocum, in fact, dispatched the First Division of his Corps to Gettysburg immediately upon hearing the first report of the fighting. Further, Gen. Slocum's First Division commander, Brig. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams, verified this as he reported in late 1865 that "when reports of the battle going on in advance of Gettysburg were brought to Gen. Slocum ... orders were issued to put the corps in motion," and the "corps was immediately put in rapid march toward the scene."
A report by Maj. Guindon, whom Slocum had sent on a reconnaissance mission, corroborates Williams' report; Maj. Guindon indicated that Slocum moved out troops even before he received a request for aid from Gen. Howard. Furthermore, Slocum advanced his First Division despite an order (known as the "Pipe Creek Circular") issued by General Meade that morning, and received by Slocum at 1:30 pm, to "halt your command where this order reaches you." Contrary to modern interpretation, Slocum's actions in fact showed initiative.
Slocum arrived at the battlefield marching from Two Taverns on the Baltimore Pike, about 5 miles southeast of the battlefield, late in the afternoon on July 1, 1863.
As the ranking general on the field, Slocum commanded the Union army for about six hours, until Meade arrived after midnight. During this time, Slocum was responsible for the supervision of the formation of the Union defensive lines. For the duration of the battle, Slocum would command the Union line from the "point of the fish hook" from Culp's Hill to the south. Slocum's XII Corps would successfully defend Culp's Hill for three days, denying a Confederate victory at this most crucial of battles. During the battle of Culp's Hill, in addition to his own XII Corps, Slocum commanded elements of the I, VI and XI Corps.
On July 2 at midnight, Gen. Meade called for a council of war with his corps commanders. It was held at his field headquarters in the front room of the Leister house. He asked his commanders whether the Union Army should remain in its present position, or to retire to another position nearer its base of supplies. Further, if the Army remained in its present position, should it attack or await the attack of the enemy. It is then that Slocum gave his recommendation to "Stay and fight it out."Gibbon, John, Major General, U.S.V. "The Council of War on the Second Day," In Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, pp. 313–314. New York: Century Company, 1884, 1888.
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 reported to Meade that he believed the plan was not feasible, as the terrain was too difficult for an assault. General Gouvernor K. Warren agreed with Slocum's assessment.
When Meade ordered Slocum to send the entire XII Corps to assist the defense against Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's assault on the Union left 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. This brigade was composed of five regiments of infantry, of only 1,350 soldiers. The regiments were: the 60th New York, Colonel Abel Godard; the 78th New York, Colonel Herbert von Hammerstein; the 102nd New York, Colonel Lewis R. Stegman; the 137th New York, Colonel David Ireland; and the 149th New York, Colonel Henry A. Barnum.Greene, George S., "The breastworks at Culp's Hill, II." In Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 3, Century Magazine, 1887, 317.
General Greene later wrote in an article for Century Magazine, "To the discernment of General Slocum who saw the danger to which the army would exposed by the movement ordered by Meade to deplete the right wing the afternoon of July 2, and who took the responsibility of modifying the orders which he had received from Meade is due the honor of having saved the army from a great and perhaps fatal disaster."
General Oliver O. Howard later recalled of Slocum's troops and the defense of Culp's Hill: "The fighting at Culp's Hill was the most impressive incident of the Battle of Gettysburg ... a step all-important and essential to victory ... Slocum ... prevented Meade from losing the Battle of Gettysburg."Howard, Oliver O. "To the Memory of Henry Slocum: A Eulogy by Oliver O. Howard." In Civil War Times Illustrated, ed. Thomas E. Hilton, 21, March 1982, 38–41. Slocum's XII Corps received no medals of honor for the defense of Culp's Hill and the Union right wing."
Western Theater