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.

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.

[1] 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.

[5] While serving in the army, Slocum studied law under B. C. Presley, who was later elected Supreme Court Justice of South Carolina.

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.

[6] 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.

[6] 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.

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.

[12] 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.

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.

[18] 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.

"[19] Slocum's XII Corps received no medals of honor for the defense of Culp's Hill and the Union right wing."

[9] When Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson was killed in action during the Atlanta Campaign, command of Army of the Tennessee opened up, and when Hooker did not get it he resigned his commission.

Slocum and his Army of Georgia participated in all engagements from the beginning of the March on November 16 until the surrender of the Confederate forces of General Joseph E. Johnston.

Another objective was to disrupt the Southern economy by limiting access to vast food stores, manufacturing and destroying their rail and communication systems.

He wrote, "I had wagons enough loaded with essentials, and beef cattle enough to feed on for more than a month, and had the census statistics showing the produce of every county through which I desired to pass.

During the march, Slocum's troops employed individuals who were newly freed from slavery as pontoon builders and road-building detachments.

After the capture of the city, Slocum recommended to Sherman that Confederate Gen. William J. Hardee's corps, whose only escape route was north over a causeway, be cut off.

"[9] Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Gen. Sherman and his army on April 17, 1865, at Bennett's farm, Durham Station, North Carolina.

Most of the damage inflicted by Sherman's army was in destruction of railroads, factories, cotton supplies and manufacturing, livestock, confiscation of food stores.

The orders countermanded the attempt by the provisional governor of Mississippi, William Sharkey, to form a state militia independent of federal control.

Here he makes it clear that, as long as courts grant equal privileges, ex-slaves are to be regulated by the same criminal statues as other citizens.

[32] With the end of the war, Slocum resigned from the army rather than revert to his prewar rank of colonel, and returned to Syracuse, New York.

[4] Slocum ran as the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State of New York in 1865, but was defeated by fellow Gettysburg General Francis C.

He worked in Congress for the exoneration of Major General Fitz John Porter who was court-martialed after the Second Battle of Bull Run.

A former member of his staff wrote of him, in memoriam: "In all the sterling qualities that go to make up a man, I have seldom met the equal or superior of Major General Henry W. Slocum.

Firm and resolute of purpose, yet with so much modesty, so little of self-assertion; so faithful in the performance of whatever he believed to be his duty; so independent in his speech and conduct, whatever might be the future result.

A United States Army transport ship used for carrying soldiers and equipment during the Spanish–American War was named for General Slocum.