John Alexander Logan

John Alexander Logan 1826-86, American politician, Union general in the Civil War, b. Murphysboro, Ill. He fought in the Mexican War and practiced law in Illinois. A Democrat who supported Stephen A. Douglas, he served several terms in the state legislature and was elected to Congress in 1858 and 1860. At the first battle of Bull Run (July, 1861), Logan fought in the ranks. Afterward he organized the 31st Illinois Infantry, of which he was made colonel. He served at Fort Donelson (1862) and in the Vicksburg campaign (1862-63). Logan led a corps of the Army of the Tennessee in General Sherman's Atlanta campaign (1864) and commanded that army for a short time. However, Oliver O. Howard was given the permanent command, and Logan returned to his corps for the march through the Carolinas. A radical Republican Congressman (1867-71), he was one of the House managers of the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. From 1871 to 1877 and from 1880 until his death he was a U.S. Senator from Illinois. He was the Republican candidate for Vice President in 1884. A founder, and three times president, of the Grand Army of the Republic, Logan was a prominent supporter of legislation for veterans. He inaugurated Memorial Day in 1868. He wrote The Volunteer Soldier of America (1887).

Bibliography: See studies by J. P. Jones (1967) and by his wife, M. S. Logan (1913, abr. ed. 1970).

Logan, John Alexander (1826–86) Union army officer, born in Jackson County, Illinois. Logan fought at Fort Donelson (1862), during the Vicksburg (1862–63) and Atlanta (1864) campaigns, and in William T. Sherman's campaign through the Carolinas (1865). After the conflict, Logan played a major role in organizing the Grand Army of the Republic. He also had an active political career, serving in both the House and Senate and running unsuccessfully for vice president on the Republican ticket in 1884. In Congress Logan, a radical Republican, frequently denounced former Confederates and attacked President Andrew Johnson. Logan had also served in Congress before the war, as a Democrat, when he was outspoken in his pro-slavery and anti-abolitionist views. His eventual siding with the Union surprised many. He remained a War Democrat during the conflict, but campaigned for Abraham Lincoln's reelection in 1864.

As commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, Logan proclaimed the first formal Memorial Day in 1868.

Logan, John (1826–1886), Civil War general, politician, author.Logan abandoned his political career in 1861 to raise an Illinois volunteer regiment for the Union during the Civil War. “Black Jack” Logan served in the western theater, where he won a major generalcy by 1863. Following division and corps commands, he temporarily led the Army of the Tennessee in the 1864 Atlanta campaign.

Subsequently, Logan chaired the Military Affairs Committees during his years in the House and Senate (1866–86); he founded and was three‐time president of the Grand Army of the Republic, 1869 through 1871. In both roles, he extolled the volunteer citizen‐soldier and excoriated the dominance of military high command by “aristocratic” army officers. Logan's ponderous The Volunteer Soldier of America (1887) reiterated these themes.

Logan's attacks on the regular army represented in part resentment following Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's selection (1864) of a West Pointer to permanent command of the Army of the Tennessee. Logan was more than the mere political hack and unthinking military critic some scholars have depicted. Recognized as the one of best of the “political” volunteer generals, his ideas for training citizen‐soldiers and opening high command opportunities for them were not mindless. The hyperbole of Logan's rhetoric, however, gravely weakened his assessment of postwar military policy.
[See also Atlanta, Battle of; Civil War: Military and Diplomatic Course; Union Army.]

Bibliography

Russell F. Weigley , John A. Logan: The Rebuttal for a Citizen Army, in Weigley, ed., Towards an American Army: Military Thought from Washington to Marshall, 1962.
James P. Jones , “Black Jack”: John A. Logan and Southern Illinois in the Civil War Era, 1967.
James P. Jones , John A. Logan: Stalwart Republican from Illinois, 1982.

Jerry Cooper