XXI.JOHN A. LOGAN.
I
IT was on the 9th of February, 1826, that John A. Logan was born, at Murphysborough, Ill., a little town among the hills that hem in the Mississippi River. He was the eldest of eleven children.
His father was a physician, and came to America from Ireland three years before, while his mother, Elizabeth Jenkins, was from a family that lived in Tennessee.
He grew up, strong and powerful in youth, amid the exciting scenes of purely western life. It was a life that appealed to courage, placed a premium upon all of manly energy and exertion, and infused into him, with every breath, that best of robust health which, like bank-stock drawing a high rate of interest, has met every demand made upon it for over half a century.
His advantages of education in early youth were of a slender character, except as he derived instruction from the teaching of his father and at his mother’s knee; for no regular schools existed in the settlement, except at a log school-house, where an itinerant teacher presided, under whose tuition only the quickest and aptest boy or girl would make advancement.
One who knows him well says that when eighteen years old he was sent to the nearest school, called Shiloh Academy, under the jurisdiction of the Methodist Church, and graduated from it into the Mexican war. He had breathed an atmosphere of war from childhood. In his youth the stories of the war of 1812 and of the Revolution were fresh in the memories and constantly in the mouths of those about him, many of whom had been actual participants. The Seminole and Black-Hawk wars had occurred in his youth, and personal acquaintance with many who had participated in them kindled in him the glow and fervor of adventure. He enlisted in the First Illinois Regiment, and went to Mexico.
Though among the youngest of the men, he came at once into prominence by his energy and bearing, and the quick activity of his mind, and the great fearlessness with which he occupiedand held each post of danger to which he was assigned.
There was about him such an utter abandonment to the work of battle, that his strong marks of leadership were quickly recognized, and he was made lieutenant, then adjutant, and finally quartermaster, a position of grave responsibility in the enemy’s country.
After the war he studies at college, and then reads law with his uncle, Alexander M. Jenkins, who was a great man in southern Illinois. He had at one time been lieutenant-governor of the state, and was a Jacksonian Democrat.
In 1849 Mr. Logan was elected clerk of Jackson County, and continued his study of law. He took a course of law-lectures at Louisville, and was admitted to the bar. He commenced practice with his uncle, and soon gained prominence. But political life, for one so active, filled with an unbounded energy, had charms for him.
Soon after his return from Louisville, he was elected prosecuting attorney for Jackson County, in 1852, and the same year to the legislature, and re-elected in 1853, 1856, and 1857. In 1854 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the third judiciary district of Illinois, and in 1856 was a presidential elector on the Buchanan and Breckenridge ticket.
It was at this time he began his career as a stump-speaker, and his speeches were regarded as remarkable examples of eloquence, giving him a reputation that sent him to congress in 1858. He was an earnest Douglas man, and being re-nominated in 1860, he stumped the state with great success, and was re-elected by a large majority. This was a transition period. The great contest was coming on, and “the piping times of peace” were angry with the most dread forebodings.
At this point we will let one speak who knows him well:—
“Right here came a critical period in his career, and although there are men who still assert that his sympathy was with the secessionists, there is plenty of evidence that the South had no claim upon him,—that whatever his original sentiments may have been, his public utterances were always loyal, and that when the crisis came he was on the right side. The country he lived in was full of Southern sympathizers, his mother’s family were secessionists, and his surroundings made loyalty unpopular. The story that he tendered his services to Jefferson Davis is contradicted by that gentleman, who says he never heard of Logan until more than a year after the war began.
“There are several witnesses to the fact thatin November, 1860, when Lincoln’s election was assured, and threats were freely made that he should not be inaugurated, Logan publicly declared that he would shoulder a musket and escort the ‘Rail-Splitter’ to the White House.
“While he was in Washington, attending the called session of congress in the summer of 1861, he went to the front, as many representatives did, to visit the army in Virginia, and being the guest of Colonel Richardson when the battle of Bull Run took place, he was given a musket and fought through that eventful July day as a private in the ranks.”
When congress adjourned in August, he went home, resigned his seat in congress, raised the Thirty-first Illinois Regiment, was commissioned its colonel, and led them into battle at Belmont, Missouri, ten months after they were mustered into service. One has well said, “Logan was developed by the war. The bugler of the army sounded the key-note of his character, and in an atmosphere of dust and powder he grew great.”
In that first battle at Belmont he had his horse shot under him, while leading a successful bayonet-charge. He fought with General Grant at Fort Henry, and in the siege and terrific contest at Fort Donelson he bore a brave, conspicuous part, and was wounded in the left arm. He was off duty for a while, and refused a re-electionto congress, but reported on March 5th to General Grant for duty at Pittsburgh Landing, only about a month after the Fort Donelson engagement, and was at once made a brigadier-general.
Nashville had fallen. Tennessee was largely within the Union lines, and entrance was being effected into Georgia and Mississippi; hence the stubborn resistance of the foe at Pittsburgh Landing. But victory brought them to the siege of Corinth, Island No. 10 falling under the guns of Commodore Foote. Grant and Logan led their armies down to Vicksburg.
During the winter-campaign in Mississippi and the siege of Vicksburg, Logan’s bravery was proverbial. He was given command of a division in McPherson’s corps, and made a major-general in the army, within a year of entrance.
During the summer of 1862 he was repeatedly urged to “run for congress,” but his reply was worthy a hero: “I have entered the field to die, if need be, for this Government, and never expect to return to peaceful pursuits until the object of this war of preservation has become a fact established.”
His personal bravery and military skill were so conspicuous in Grant’s Northern Mississippi movements, where he commanded a division of the Seventeenth Army Corps, under General McPherson,he was promoted to the rank of major-general Nov. 26, 1862. He was present in every fight, his daring bravery animating his men at Fort Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, and Vicksburg. He was in command of McPherson’s centre, June 25th, when the assault upon Vicksburg was made. His column led the entrance into the city, and he became its first military governor.
In November, 1863, he was called to succeed General Sherman in command of his famous Fifteenth Army Corps. The following May he joined Sherman as the Georgia campaign was opening. It was Logan who led the advance of the Army of the Tennessee at Resaca, who whipped Hardee’s trained veterans at Dallas, and drove the enemy from Kenesaw Mountain.
On July 22d he was in the fierce assault before Atlanta. In this desperate attack upon Hood, Logan fought as he never fought before, and when McPherson fell he took command of the Army of the Tennessee, and with resistless fury avenged the death of the beloved commander.
After the fall of Atlanta he returned to Illinois, temporarily, to take part in the presidential campaign. It was our privilege to hear him then, and never, it would seem, did such withering scorn, such utter denunciation, such infinite contempt,show themselves, as he manifested in a great speech, full of vim and fire, not for the brave, honest rebel in arms, but for the cowardly copperheads in the rear.
He was less than forty years of age, only thirty-eight, but his name and fame as a soldier were a tower of strength, and he drew together immense crowds.
Soon after Mr. Lincoln’s second election he returns to the front, and joins Sherman in his march to the sea, and continued with him until the surrender of Gen. Joseph Johnston, on April 26, 1865. After the surrender he marched his men to Alexandria, and rode at their head in the grand review in Washington. He had taken command of the Army of the Tennessee, Oct. 23, 1864, and tendered his resignation when active service was over, being unwilling to draw pay unless on duty in the field.
President Johnson tendered him the mission to Mexico, but he declined it, and returning home was elected successively to the fortieth, the forty-first, and the forty-second congresses. He was selected as one of a committee of seven to represent the House in the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson.
Before he had taken his seat in the forty-second congress, the legislature of Illinois elected him to the United States senate for the fullterm from March 4, 1871, to succeed the Hon. Richard Yates, the gallant war-governor of that state. He was again chosen for the senate, and took his seat the second time March 18, 1879. His present term expires March 3, 1885. He led the delegation of his state in the national convention of 1880, and was one of the most determined of the “three hundred and six” who followed the fortunes of “the old commander,” General Grant.
He has been an active man at military reunions, and was one of the founders of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was the first national commander of that organization, and as such issued the order in 1868 for the decoration of the graves of Union soldiers.
His financial views have been the subject of criticism, but they have generally represented the sentiments of his constituency. In 1866 he took strong grounds in favor of the payment of the national debt in gold coin. In 1874 he followed the popular Western movement, and voted for the Inflation bill, which President Grant vetoed. But in the following year he favored the Sherman Resumption act.
General Logan was always a leader in securing pension legislation. He has been radical in favoring internal improvements, has always voted for liberal appropriations for rivers and harbors,and has given his support to railroad land-grant measures. His property consists of a residence on Calumet Avenue in Chicago, which is worth from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand dollars, and a farm at his old home in southern Illinois.
He resides in Washington at a boarding-house on Twelfth Street, occupying two modest rooms, the same in which he has lived for twelve years.
In 1855 he married Miss Mary Cunningham, of Shawneetown, Ill., and she has proved a most valuable helpmeet, being as good, if not a better politician than himself, and a lady of great refinement as well as intellectual force. There is no woman in public life who possesses more admirable traits than Mrs. Logan, and her popularity with her own sex is quite as great as with the other. She can write a speech on finance, or dictate the action of a political caucus, with as much ease and grace as she can preside at a dinner-party, or receive her guests. At the same time she is a devoted mother. She has two children,—a daughter, who is the wife of Paymaster Tucker, of the army, and a son, Manning, a cadet at West Point. Both of them have been educated by her, or under her personal supervision.
As a society woman she is graceful and accomplished;in charities she is always active and generous; in religion she is a devout Methodist.
During the campaign of 1866 General Logan was running for congressman-at-large. The multitudes came to hear him; a grand stand was erected in the court-house yard at Bloomington; thousands were gathered, filling the grounds and covering the roofs of buildings. He was in his glory; for three hours he spoke; the people laughed, and cried, and shouted cheer on cheer. We had heard Douglas, Lovejoy, Colfax, but never such a speech as that.
The rebel army was whipped and gone, and now the Democratic party loomed up as an enemy in the land.
In telling why he had left the party and become a staunch Republican, his sarcasm burned like caustic. He told a story in an inimitable way, to illustrate the point. It was the story of the flock of sheep the farmer gave his boys:—
“Tommy was to divide the flock, and Johnny take his choice, so Tommy put all the fine, large ones by themselves, and all the scabby, scaly, shaggy ones in another yard, and with them he put Johnny’s little pet lamb, which he had raised and cared for all summer, feeding it with fresh, warm milk, and had put a little blue ribbon,with a bell on it, about its neck; and Tommy knew how he loved it, and so he put it in with the poor, old, scaly lot of sheep. When Johnny came to look at the sheep he looked for Nannie, his lamb; he heard its bell, and saw it was in bad company, with a miserable lot of bad sheep, and so he said, ‘Nannie, good-bye; I’ve loved you. I tied that blue ribbon about your neck, and put that bell on it. I’ve fed you and taken care of you all this time’ (and this description was given with the most dramatic effect); ‘but, Nannie, we must part. Johnny, I will take this lot,’ pointing to all the best sheep.”
The roar was tumultuous when they saw the point, and it was a terrific hit for the old party, in with the copperheads and rebels.
It was surely one of the happiest steps of his life, when he came out on the Republican side of the Republic’s great battle for the liberty of the enslaved and the citizenship of freemen.
Few soldiers are now living, not excepting the old commander himself, who in a political campaign will make the heart of the old veterans beat faster and warmer at the remembrance of former times, and the achievements of battles now enjoyed, than Gen. John A. Logan, United States senator from Illinois, and Republican candidatefor vice-president, with James G. Blaine, of Maine, for president.
The old hearts thrill anew, and the old shout rings out again, and the victory of the past must at their hands be perpetuated in the victory of the future.
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