Northern Virginia Campaign
During the American Civil War, his VMI-educated eldest son, James E. Slaughter, relinquished his U.S. Army commission and volunteered to fight in the Confederate States Army. However, the younger Slaughter fought not in the Northern Virginia Campaign but further south, and rose to the rank of Brigadier General, but at the war's end fled to Mexico and never returned to reside in Virginia, nor did he ever marry as did his siblings and half-siblings.