Henry Warner Slocum Henry Warner Slocum ( 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 . Controversy arose from his conduct at the Battle of Gettysburg , where he was accused of indecision and a dilatory advance to the battlefield , earning him the derogatory nickname " Slow Come " . Early life and career . Slocum was born in Delphi , a hamlet in Onondaga County , New York . He attended Cazenovia Seminary and worked as a teacher . He obtained an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1848 , where he did well academically , graduating 7th of 43 in his 1852 class ; considerably better than his roommate , Philip Sheridan . He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 1st U . S . Artillery on July 1 , 1852 . He served in the Seminole War in Florida and at Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor , married Clara Rice in 1854 , and was promoted to first lieutenant on March 3 , 1855 . He resigned his commission October 31 , 1856 , and settled in Syracuse , New York . Slocum had studied law while bored at garrison duty in the army . He was admitted to the bar in 1858 and practiced in Syracuse . He served as the county treasurer and was a member of the New York State Assembly ( Onondaga Co . , 2nd D . ) in 1859 . During this period he also served as an artillery instructor in the New York Militia with the rank of colonel . Civil War . Early commands . At the outbreak of the Civil War , Slocum was appointed colonel of the 27th New York Infantry , which was a two - year regiment mustered in at Elmira , New York . He led the regiment in Maj . Gen . David Hunter ' s division at the First Battle of Bull Run , where his regiment suffered 130 casualties and he was wounded in the thigh . In August 1861 , he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and commanded the 2nd Brigade , Maj . Gen . William B . Franklin ' s 1st Division , I Corps during the Peninsula Campaign and the 1st Division , VI Corps at the Seven Days Battles , distinguishing himself at the Battle of Gaines ' Mill . On July 25 , 1862 , Slocum was appointed major general of volunteers to rank from July 4 , the second youngest man in the Army to achieve that rank . Still in command of the 1st Division , he led it covering the retreat of Maj . Gen . John Pope after the Second Battle of Bull Run . At Crampton ' s Gap during the Battle of South Mountain , he and his subordinate officers overrode their indecisive corps commander , Maj . Gen . William B . Franklin , assaulting the enemy line behind a stone wall and routing it . On October 20 , 1862 , he assumed command of the XII Corps after its commander , Maj . Gen . Joseph K . Mansfield , was killed at the Battle of Antietam , a battle where Slocum ' s division was kept in reserve . He led the corps in the Battle of Fredericksburg ( where he fortunately arrived too late on the scene to see any real action in that Union catastrophe ) and the Battle of Chancellorsville , where he commanded the right wing , including his corps and those of Maj . Gens . George G . Meade and Oliver O . Howard , a force of 46 , 000 men . Slocum executed well and maneuvered his wing into the rear of Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s army , only to be halted prematurely at Chancellorsville by Army of the Potomac commander Maj . Gen . Joseph Hooker . He publicly criticized Hooker after the battle and was one of the " cabal " of generals that attempted to have him removed from command . Slocum was known as an unassertive , exceedingly careful , by - the - book officer . By the summer of 1863 , he was relatively young , at 36 , to be a major general , but he possessed a manner that inspired confidence in his men . When Hooker was relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac , Slocum , being the most senior general in that army , was in line for command . However , he was not seriously considered , and agreed to serve under Meade . Gettysburg . At the Battle of Gettysburg , Slocum received some criticism for his corps ' slow march to the battlefield , which led to his derisive nickname , " Slow Come " . The XII Corps stopped at Two Taverns on the Baltimore Pike , about 5 miles southeast of the battlefield , by midmorning on July 1 , 1863 . Sometime between 1 : 30 and 2 p . m . , he received an urgent message from Maj . Gen . Howard requesting immediate reinforcements at Gettysburg . Slocum later claimed that he had been unaware of the start of the battle , possibly because of an " acoustic shadow " caused by intervening hills . Officers on his staff , however , reported that by 1 p . m . they heard the sound of cannon , increasingly heavy musketry fire , and could see smoke rising high over the hills and the bursting of shells . In any event , the receipt of the message from Gen . Howard was clear evidence and unrelated to the acoustic situation . Historian Larry Tagg claims that Slocum " spent the entire afternoon vacillating , neither bringing forward his corps nor going ahead himself to take command by virtue of his rank . " Some historians have explained Slocum ' s indecision by citing the " Pipe Creek Circular " , Meade ' s contingency plan for a defensive line in Maryland , saying that it directed Slocum to stop at Two Taverns and into thinking that Meade wished to avoid a general engagement at Gettysburg . However , Meade ' s supplementary order to Slocum , which placed the V Corps as well as the XII Corps under his direction , explicitly made any retrograde movement dependent on the decisions of Maj . Gen . John F . Reynolds in Gettysburg . ( Reynolds had been killed earlier that day , but Slocum was unaware of that fact . The actions in Gettysburg made any immediate provisions of the circular irrelevant . ) It took the arrival of three additional messengers at Slocum ' s headquarters before he moved into action . Captain Daniel Hall , carrying a message sent at 3 p . m . by Gen . Howard , considered Slocum ' s response to Howard ' s request to be " anything but honorable , soldierly , or patriotic . " Some students of the battle believe Slocum could have mitigated the rout of the XI Corps if he had arrived earlier than 6 p . m . on July 1 and had marched both of his divisions directly up the Baltimore Pike to provide reinforcements . Historian Edwin Coddington , otherwise critical of Slocum ' s dilatory response , found that it was highly doubtful whether they could have deployed beyond the town in time to mount a counterattack in support of the retreating XI Corps . As the ranking general on the field , Slocum commanded the army for about six hours after the fighting that day , until Meade arrived after midnight . Meade planned an attack from the Power ' s Hill area into the Confederate left flank , to be led by Slocum the following day , utilizing the V Corps and the XII Corps as the army ' s " right wing " . Slocum resisted the suggestion , claiming the terrain was too difficult for an assault , but he continued to fancy himself the right wing commander for the rest of the battle , leaving Brig . Gen . Alpheus S . Williams temporarily in command of his XII Corps during this period . When Meade ordered Slocum to send the entire XII Corps to assist the defense against Lt . Gen . James Longstreet ' s assault on the Union left flank on July 2 , Slocum wisely recommended holding one brigade back in its position on Culp ' s Hill . This brigade , under Brig . Gen . George S . Greene , was able to hold out against a massive Confederate assault and saved the critical hill for the Union . Western Theater . After Gettysburg , the XI Corps and XII Corps were sent to Tennessee in the Western Theater , under the command of Joseph Hooker . When Slocum found out he was going to be serving under Hooker , he submitted two letters of resignation to President Abraham Lincoln stating his derogatory opinion of Hooker as both an officer and a gentleman . Lincoln refused the resignation and assured Slocum he would not have to serve under Hooker . A compromise was reached whereby one division of the corps , under Slocum , was assigned to protect the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad while the other division served directly under Hooker . During the summer of 1864 , Slocum commanded the District of Vicksburg and the XVII Corps of the Department of the Tennessee . 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 . Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman selected Slocum to command the new XX Corps ( formed from the remnants of the XI Corps and XII Corps ) . Slocum ' s former XII Corps men cheered their previous commander ' s return . When Atlanta fell to Sherman on September 2 , 1864 , Slocum ' s corps was the first to enter the city . At the start of the Franklin - Nashville Campaign , Sherman left Slocum in command of 12 , 000 troops in Atlanta as Sherman pursued Confederate Lt . Gen . John Bell Hood and his army . Sherman later placed Slocum in command of the newly created Army of Georgia , composed of the XX Corps and the XIV Corps from the Army of the Cumberland , which served as the left wing in Sherman ' s March to the Sea and Carolinas Campaign . The other wing , consisting of the XV and XVII Corps of the Army of the Tennessee , was commanded by Oliver O . Howard . Upon reaching Savannah , Slocum recommended to Sherman that Confederate Gen . William J . Hardee ' s corps , whose only escape route was north over a causeway , be cut off . But Sherman rejected Slocum ' s plan , and Hardee escaped , to fight again at Bentonville . During the Carolinas Campaign , Slocum ' s army was heavily engaged at the Battle of Averasborough and the Battle of Bentonville , where Slocum successfully held off a surprise assault by Gen . Joseph E . Johnston . After the Confederate surrender , Slocum commanded the Department of the Mississippi . In this role , his “ General Orders No . 22 ” appear as attachment number 12 in Carl Schurz ' s 1865 " Report to Congress on the Condition of the South " . The orders countermanded the attempt by the provisional governor of Mississippi , William Sharkey , to form a state militia independent of federal control . Section VII of his “ General Orders No . 10 ” also appear in this report in attachment number 27 . 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 . Slocum resigned from the Army on September 28 , 1865 . Postbellum life . Slocum ran as the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State of New York in 1865 , but was defeated by fellow Gettysburg General Francis C . Barlow . After resuming work as a lawyer , and declining an offer to return to the U . S . Army as a colonel , he was elected as a Democrat to the 41st and 42nd Congresses ( March 4 , 1869 – March 3 , 1873 ) . Slocum worked in Congress for the exoneration of Maj . Gen . Fitz John Porter who was court - martialed after the Second Battle of Bull Run . He was not a candidate for renomination in 1872 . Instead , he resumed the practice of law in Syracuse . He was appointed president of the department of city works of Brooklyn , New York in 1876 and was involved in many civic improvements , from surface transportation to the Brooklyn Bridge , where his name is prominent on a bronze tablet . He advocated unsuccessfully for having no bridge tolls . He was again elected in 1882 as a representative - at - large to the 48th Congress ( March 4 , 1883 – March 3 , 1885 ) . He was president of the Board of Trustees of the New York State Soldiers ' and Sailors ' Home in Bath , New York , and was a member of the Board of Gettysburg Monuments Commissioners . Henry Slocum died in Brooklyn , New York , and is interred at Green - Wood Cemetery , where Gen . Porter also is interred . Namesake . A steamship , the " General Slocum " , was named for him ; it had a disastrous fire on board in 1904 with much loss of life . Fort Slocum , New York , guards the entrance to New York Harbor from Long Island Sound . A statue of Slocum is in Grand Army Plaza , Brooklyn .