14. General Henry Warner Slocum, Grand Army Plaza (Brooklyn)

Frederick William MacMonnies, who more famously designed the Nathan Hale and Civic Virtue statues, created the often overlooked equestrian statue of General Henry Warner Slocum, hidden amongst the foliage of Grand Army Plaza. The statue was originally erected at Bedford Avenue and Eastern Parkway, in 1905. President Theodore Roosevelt was present at its dedication in what The New York Times described as the greatest Memorial Day in Brooklyn’s history.

General Slocum was moved to the Fifteenth Street entrance of Prospect Park due to the building of the subway on Eastern Parkway (or alternatively a traffic tower). The statue was moved to its current location in a “wooded knoll” (to put it nicely) in Grand Army Plaza, in 1927. Aside from at one time being a well regarded Union general and for saying “Stay and fight it out” at the Battle of Gettysburg, Slocum has faded into obscurity. His name is even barely visible on his statue and his sword has been stolen multiple times.

Today, Slocum is most known unforunately for the steamship named after him that sank in 1904 causing the deaths of over 1,000 New Yorkers, the largest disaster in New York history before September 11th, 2001.