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, South Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Harpers’ Ferry.
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.
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 appointed Slocum to command the new XX Corps, which had been formed by merging the XI Corps and XII Corps into a single command. His former XII Corps soldiers cheered their previous commander’s return. When Atlanta fell to Sherman on September 2, 1864, Gen. Slocum and his corps were the first to enter the city.[4]
Slocum was occupation commander of Atlanta for ten weeks, during which time he tried to make the occupation as tolerable for civilians as he could. Slocum wrote to his wife in a letter on November 7, 1864: “I wish for humanity’s sake that this sad war could be brought to a close. While laboring to make it successful, I shall do all in my power to mitigate its horrors.”[21]
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.
One of General Slocum’s most important commands was that of the Army of Georgia, which participated in the famous March to the Sea. Slocum and his Army of Georgia participated in all engagements from the beginning of the March on November 16 until the surrender of the Confederate forces of General Joseph E. Johnston.
General William Tecumseh Sherman’s March to the Sea, also called the Savannah Campaign, was among the most effective campaigns of the Civil War.[22] The plan was conceived by Sherman himself, and approved by General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln.
Sherman’s objective was to divide the Confederacy in two along a West to East path following its strategic rail lines. Sherman’s Army would exchange its inland base of Atlanta for the more secure base (Savannah) on the Atlantic coast, which was controlled by the Union Navy. Disrupt the Southern economy by limiting access to vast food stores, manufacturing and destroying their rail and communication systems. Further it would demonstrate that Southern Army could not defend their heartland. The campaign would prevent reinforcing of Lee’s troops defending Petersburg, Virginia, and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Sherman’s Savannah campaign was considered a major Union success. Historians have stated that this was a major contribution to the overall Union victory in the war. The March was considered revolutionary, and in some ways unique, in the annals of modern warfare.[23]
Sherman’s Army was composed of two armies, called wings, and a cavalry division. During the March, they followed separate paths along four parallel routes, 20–60 miles apart. Columns of men could stretch up to 50 miles long. Wagon columns could stretch up to 30 miles. The right wing (southern column; Army of the Tennessee) marched along the Georgia railroad, the Macon and Western railroad. The left wing (northern column; Army of Georgia) marched following the Georgia railroad, feinting toward Augusta. Sherman’s plan was to confuse the Confederate Army as to his objectives. The city he was heading for was Milledgeville, the Georgia state capital, which was captured on November 22, 1864. The ultimate objective of the March was the port city of Savannah, which was captured and occupied on December 21, 1864.
Sherman later placed Slocum in command of the newly created Army of Georgia, composed of the XIV Corps and the XX Corps from the Army of the Cumberland, which served as the left wing in Sherman’s March to the Sea. The total number of officers and men in Slocum’s Army of Georgia was 26,703.[24] The XIV Corps, commanded by Brig. Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, had 13,962 officers and men. The XX Corps, commanded by Brig. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams, had 13, 714 officers and men. The other wing, consisting of the XV and XVII Corps of the Army of the Tennessee, was commanded by Gen. Oliver O. Howard.
Sherman’s Army travelled light. Individual soldiers carried only minimal amounts of supplies, ammunition, rations. The Army, cut off from its supply base, partially lived off captured supplies. Sherman brought sufficient rations for the initial campaigns. He wrote, “I had wagons enough loaded with essentials, and beef cattle enough to feed on for more than a month, and had the census statistics showing the produce of every county through which I desired to pass. No military expedition was ever based on sounder or surer data.”[25]
Each brigade had 50 enlisted men and one officer foraging team for supplying food.
Approximately 3,000 infantrymen were engaged in foraging on any given day of the March. That represents 5% of all infantrymen on the March.
The Savannah campaign was launched on November 15 and concluded with the capture and occupation of Savannah on December 21, 1864 (36 days).[24] There were 25 days of actual marching. Slocum’s army traversed approximately 300 miles (480 km). Slocum’s Army of Georgia moved, on average, 12 to 15 miles per day and passed through 31 counties in Georgia. The Union column traversed 15 major creeks, streams and rivers that required pontoon bridges. During the march, Slocum’s troops employed individuals who were newly freed from slavery as pontoon builders and road-building detachments. The average distance of each crossing was 230 feet. Between Sherman’s two armies, pioneers were required to build over 100 miles of corduroy roads. Weather was relatively clear, as it only rained on two days.
For Slocum’s Army of Georgia, there were no major battles fought during the Savannah campaign. Most of the actions were, by Union accounts, skirmishes or small actions.
General Sherman’s Army captured two major cities during the March to the Sea. These cities were the Milledgeville, Capitol of Georgia, and Savannah, Georgia, the principal seaport city of Georgia. Both cities were occupied by the Union Army and there was little destruction of property caused by soldiers. Both cities remained intact. The Union Army, in both cases, was credited with protecting these cities. In Savannah, the mayor of the city and aldermen thanked General Sherman and Slocum’s subordinate, General Geary.[26]
Upon reaching Savannah, Slocum took the surrender of the city on December 21, 1864. Slocum then set up fire guards and prevented the city of Savannah from being damaged. On December 22, Sherman telegraphed Abraham Lincoln, presenting Savannah as a Christmas present to Lincoln and the Union.
After the capture of the city, 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.[citation needed]
Content retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Warner_Slocum.