Statue of General Henry Warner Slocum in Prospect Park, ca. 1975.
Seated in his horse, grandly gesturing to his troops, General Henry Warner Slocum is memorialized in Prospect Park in bronze. Slocum, a Union general who played decisive role in the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, later became New York Congressman. He was also very involved in Brooklyn politics and civic life in the second half of the 19th century, as investor in local businesses, as Commissioner of the Department of City (Brooklyn) Works, and as an early advocate and investor in the Brooklyn Bridge.
The statue of the man was unveiled on Memorial Day 1905. Created by Frederick MacMonnies, the bronze statue echos the tradition of equestrian military portraits. The life-size piece, in its highly visible location at Grand Army Plaza suffered some during the 20th century: the metal corroded, vandals stole a number of decorative features, and graffiti covered the pedestal. The monument underwent a large-scale renovation in 1989 under the Municipal Arts Society's Adopt-a-Monument program and continues to be regularly maintained.