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.
Read more about this topic: Henry Warner Slocum
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“All my life I’ve been harassed by questions: Why is something this way and not another? How do you account for that? This rage to understand, to fill in the blanks, only makes life more banal. If we could only find the courage to leave our destiny to chance, to accept the fundamental mystery of our lives, then we might be closer to the sort of happiness that comes with innocence.”
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