Henry Warner Slocum
General, politician
Died when: 66 years 202 days (798 months)Star Sign: Libra
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.
