Henry Warner Slocum was born in Delphi Falls, New York in 1826. After attending the Cazenovia Seminary and the State Normal School at Albany, he enrolled in the United States Military Academy in 1848. Graduating four years later, he would go on to serve as an officer in the United States Army until the 1850s, when he resigned to practice law and participate in local and state politics. At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, he resumed his military career and served as an officer in the Union Army, rising to the rank of major general by the end of the war. He participated in several major battles, including the First Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Gaines' Mill, and the Battle of Gettysburg. Following the war, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he served several terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He died in 1894 in New York City.