Charles Henry Van Wyck (May 10, 1824 – October 24, 1895) was a Representative from New York, a Senator from Nebraska, and a Union Army brigadier general in the American Civil War.

In his minority report to the investigation committee he famously wrote: “Worse than traitors in arms are the men, pretending loyalty to the flag, who feast and fatten on the misfortunes of the nation, while patriot blood is crimsoning the plains of the south, and the bodies of their countrymen are mouldering in dust.” Van Wyck delivered a harsh anti-slavery speech on the House floor on March 7, 1860, which denounced the Southern states for the "crime against the laws of God and nature.

On February 22, 1861, Van Wyck was assaulted near the United States Capitol by three men in an assassination attempt, an attack which was reported as related to the prior year's speech.

[4] Van Wyck fought off the attack, surviving only because a notebook and copy of the Congressional Globe which he had kept in the breast pocket of his coat had blocked the blade of a Bowie knife.

[4] During the American Civil War Van Wyck entered the Union Army as colonel and commanding officer of the 56th New York Infantry Regiment.

Part of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign; Van Wyck was wounded in the knee at the Battle of Fair Oaks.

Much of the war was then spent as brigade and district commander in South Carolina; taking part in the Siege of Charleston Harbor and the Battle of Honey Hill.