Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1894-04-18
THE LATE GEN. sLoCUM.

THE LATE GEN. sLoCuM' ity to battle with
the disease with which he was attacked,
and the announcement of his death to-
day will cause little surprise among
those who knew of his condition the
past few days.
No man in Brooklyn was more widely
known or more popular than Gen. Slo-
cum. He had practiced law here ever
since 1866, when he resigned from the
army. He had always taken an active
part in politics, and had it not been for
a factional fight in the Democratic party
he would have been nominated for gov
ernOr in 1882 instead OF Grover Cleve-
land His friends are fond of saying
that had it not been for this chance of
politics he would have been President.
Gen. Slocum was born in Delphi,
Onondaga County, September "A, 1927.
Upon graduation from West Point, in
1852, he was appointed to a lieutenantCy
and ordered to Florida. He was soon
promoted to be first lieutenant, but re-
signed, and returning to New York en-
gagged in the practice of law at Syracuse
and was elected to the legislature.
Upon the outbreak of the rebellion
he was one of the first to respond to
President Lincoln's call for troops, and
his military education gave him early
prominent rank. He was appointed
colonel of the Twentv-seventh New
York Volunteers, and commanded his
regiment at Bull Run, where he was Sc
verely wounded. Less than a month
later he was commissioned brigadier
general of volunteers and assigned to
the command of a brigade in Gen. Will
lam B. Franklin's division of the Army
of the Potomac.
In the Virginia peninsula campaign of
1862 he was engaged in the siege of
Yorktown and the action at West Point,
Va, and succeeded to the command of
the division on Gen. Franklin's assign
ment to another field of duty. At the
battle CT Gaines Mill he was sent with
his division to re-enforce Gen.
Fitz John Porter, who was then
severely pressed by the enemy,
and rendered important serv-
ice, as he did also at the battles of Glen
dale and Malvern Hill, his division oc-
cupying the right of the main line at
to the rank of major general of volun-
teers, engaged in the second battle of
Bull Run, at South Mountain and at
Antietam, and in October was assigned
to the command of the Twelfth Army
Corps.
In the battle of Fredericksburg,
Charlottesville and Gettysburg he
took an active part. At Gettysburg he
commanded the right wing of the army
and contributed largely to the national
victory. He was subsequently trans
ferred 10 the West and served in the De-
partment Of the Cumberland. In Au-
Hooker in the command of the Twen-
tieth Corps, which was the first body of
troops to occupy Atlanta.
In Sherman's march to the sea and
invasion of the Carolinas he held COM
mand of the left wing of the army and
participated in all its engagements f7csn
Atlanta until the surrender Of Gen.
Joseph Z. Johnston. He resigned
from the army in September, 1865. In
the same year he was the unsuc-
cessful candidate of the Democrats
for secretary of state In 1868 he was
chosen a presidential elector, was sent
to Congress the same year and reelected
III 1870. In 1876 he was elected presi-
dent of the Brooklyn Board of City
Works, which post he afterward re-
signed, and in 1884 was again elected to
Congress. He was one of the COM
missioners Of the Brooklyn bridge and
was IN favor Of making it free to the
public.
Gen. Slocum had remarkable capacity
as a business man. Every business
with which he was associated made
money, and almost before he knew it
he found himself very wealthy man.
Yet no one would suspect it from his
appearance. The clothing he wore
seemed never to have had a
fashionable tailor's cut, but to have
come from the ready-made counters,
and in all his habits he was the most
unostentatious of men. Although for
many years his hair and mustache
for his years and always went about
without cane.