Maj. Gen. John Alexander Logan was a “political general” who began his military career as colonel of an Illinois regiment. Recognized for his natural military ability, Logan quickly rose to the rank of general. By the end of the war, he commanded a Union Army. He became the co-founder of the first national veterans organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, and later helped establish Decoration Day, a national day of remembrance for Civil War dead that eventually became the basis for Memorial Day. (Library of Congress photo)

War changes people. John Alexander Logan was no exception.

Logan was born in Jackson County in southern Illinois on Feb. 9,1826. His father was a Democrat and a staunch supporter of Andrew Jackson. Elected to the Illinois General Assembly in 1836, 1838, 1840 and again in 1846, the elder Logan’s involvement in Illinois politics profoundly impacted his son’s political thinking.

Like his supporters in southern Illinois, Logan was an anti-abolitionist, Jacksonian Democrat, and a devout supporter of fugitive slave laws. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1858, the son delivered a fiery pro-slavery speech that earned him the nickname “Dirty Work” Logan.

“Every fugitive slave that has been arrested in Illinois, or in any of the Western states — and I call Illinois a Western state, for I am ashamed longer to call it a Northern state,” Logan thundered, “has been made by Democrats. In Illinois the Democrats have all that work to do. You call it the dirty work of the Democratic Party to catch slaves for the Southern people. We are willing to perform that dirty work. I do not consider it disgraceful to perform work, dirty, or not dirty, which is in accordance with the laws of the land, and the Constitution of the country.”

Logan did nothing to conceal his racism. In fact, he proclaimed it.

A member of the Illinois 18th General Assembly, in 1852, he introduced a bill that would prevent free blacks from entering Illinois. The bill, which was overwhelmingly passed by the General Assembly, included fining free blacks coming into Illinois and imposed a 10-day jail sentence.

In his drive for creating legislation to persecute free blacks and encourage support for southern slavery, Logan overlooked the increasing polarization of the northern states and the southern states over slavery.

Logan announced his wholehearted support of Douglas’ famous “Compromise of 1850” on the condition that the Northern states actually enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, Benjamin Joyner wrote in “Dirty Work: The Political Life of John A. Logan.”

Logan’s concerns seem to stem more from a regard for upholding and enforcing law rather than support of slavery as an institution. Despite this caveat, Logan’s views on Negroes cannot be glossed over. It is abundantly clear from his writings, speeches, and manners that he considered the Negro to be inferior to whites in every way, a commonly held belief by most in his day, including many abolitionists.

When the southern fire-eaters began talking about secession, however, Logan drew the line. Logan would not agree with his fellow Democrats; the Union must be preserved.

Joyner wrote that despite Logan’s hatred of the Northern Republicans, he sternly warned his Southern colleagues, “The election of Mr. Lincoln, deplorable as it may be, affords no justification or excuse for overthrowing the republic. (We) cannot stand silently by while the joint action of extremists are dragging us to ruin.”

Logan’s message was clear, secession was outside the law and a traitorous act.

According to the National Park Service, on July 21, 1861, Logan joined others from the nation’s capital who brought picnic baskets and wine to Manassas Junction, Virginia. They went out to watch what was expected to be a quick victory for the Northern Army in the first full-scale engagement of the war. Instead, it was stinging and bloody defeat, with more than 2,800 Union casualties. Unable to sit and watch the Union army being beaten, Logan ran onto the field of battle as an unattached volunteer for a Michigan regiment.

While many historians state that Logan volunteered for military service, fighting with the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry at the First Battle of Bull Run (Battle of Manassas), no notation of his having enlisted can be found in the regiment’s official record.

After witnessing the devastating defeat at Bull Run, Logan returned to Jackson County and organized the 31st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, becoming its colonel. The regiment was mustered into service on Sept. 18, 1861. Logan’s regiment was assigned to the brigade of Brig. Gen. John A. McClernand, but he ultimately reported to then Brig. Gen. Ulysses Grant.

Logan led his regiment in the battles of Belmont, and Forts Henry and Donelson, was promoted to brigadier general himself and assigned to command a brigade in the 17th Corps of the Army of the Tennessee. Promoted to major general a year later, Logan served with distinction during the Vicksburg, Mississippi campaign.

The American Battlefield Trust states that unlike many other “politician-generals,” “Black Jack” Logan excelled in the military. By March 1863, Logan was a major general commanding a division according to the American Battlefield Trust. He continued to lead with distinction during the campaign to capture Vicksburg, most notably in the assault after the explosion of a mine. After Vicksburg, Logan was given command of the Fifteenth Corps on Oct. 27, 1863, and continued to earn recognition for his leadership during the Atlanta campaign the following spring and summer.

As 1864 was an election year, Logan returned in the fall to his home district, where he campaigned not as a Democrat but as a Republican for Abraham Lincoln. War changed something in Logan.

Logan had been an ardent supporter of radical Democrat Stephen A. Douglass and, like Douglass, Logan initially blamed abolitionists for the problems in America, and preached Lincoln as their “puppet.” Logan, however, had very little personal knowledge of slavery or African Americans. That was until June 1862, when Logan led the capture of the southern rail center at Jackson, Tennessee, according to P. Michael Jones for the Southern newspaper published Dec. 2, 2012.

It was there that Logan began to see with his own eyes the treatment of slaves in the south — the conditions under which slaves were forced to live by those who were waging war to retain them; what they were fed; where they were quartered; how they were bought and sold. In the fall of 1864, he campaigned hard for Lincoln’s re-election.

Logan also began to see firsthand the courage and discipline of the colored regiments now fighting in the Union Army.

In 1865, he spoke in Louisville, Kentucky, in favor of ratifying the 13th amendment to the Constitution, which would abolish slavery in the United States, according to the Virtual Museum at Southern Illinois University’s Morris Library. Blaming the Civil War on slavery, Logan asked how “any mortal man (could) desire to see such a cause of sorrow and suffering, injury and infamy, hypocrisy and hate” perpetuated in the United States, imploring them “to strike at once and deal (slavery) a death blow” that liberty might be proclaimed “to the end of the earth.”

By 1867, Logan was arguing for black voting rights. In speeches across Ohio supporting black suffrage, he challenged opponents to “give a reason why the Negro should not vote,” stating, “I don’t care whether a man is black, red, blue, or white,” he has the right to choose the men who “control the Government.” The 15th amendment, which prohibits denying a citizen’s right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” was ratified in 1870.

By the end of the war, Logan commanded the Union Army of the Tennessee. In the first week of August 1865, he returned to politics back home in Illinois. But he did not forget the things he had seen, either the plight of the slaves or the deaths of the men he commanded.

During his service, Logan had seen the battlefields crowded with the dead of the Union Army, who had given their lives to preserve the Union and to set men free.

Having returned to his political career after the war, Logan did not forget his fellow veterans — nor did he forget those who had fallen.

In addition to his political work, Logan was a founding member of the Grand Army of the Republic, America’s first national veterans’ organization, according to the National Park Service. It was in that role he formalized “Decoration Day” by issuing General Order Number 11 in 1868. The order designated May 30 as an annual national holiday “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country.” It is believed that May 30 was selected because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

Logan helped form the GAR with former Union Army soldiers and served as its second elected national commander; Gen. Stephen Hurlburt was the first GAR commander-in-chief. On March 3, 1868, Logan issued General Order No. 11, which called for a national day of remembrance for Civil War dead. This order served as the basis for what became the national holiday of Memorial Day.

As GAR commander and house representative, Logan shaped the GAR into a political lobbying group, and used its strength, military influence and his political power to have a multi-regional ceremony for the decorating of soldiers’ graves once a year. After World War I, Memorial Day became a day to honor the fallen from all American wars. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by Congress, and moved to the last Monday of May.

Sources:

— American Battlefield Trust (no author credited), Biography: “John A. Logan.” https://www.battlefields.org/learn/biographies/john-logan

— Jones, Michael P. “Gen. Logan’s Change on Slave Rights.” The Southern. Dec. 2, 2012. https://thesouthern.com/news/local/article_115f60c0-3c44-11e2-b8eb-001a4bcf887a.html (site requires a subscription).

— Joyner, Benjamin, “Dirty Work: The Political Life of John A Logan.”Eastern Illinois University Department of History, “Historia Vol. 21” (2012). Historia. 19. http://thekeep.eiu.edu/historia/19

— National Park Service (no author credited), “John Logan: War Hero, Public Servant, Founder of Memorial Day. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/john-logan-war-hero-public-servant-founder-of-memorial-day.htm

— Tap, Bruce, “John Alexander Logan: Democrat, General, and Radical Republican.” Historical Research and Narrative. https://www.lib.niu.edu/2007/iht14020736.html

— Virtual Museum at Southern Illinois University’s Morris Library, “John Alexander Logan, 1826-1886.” https://scrcexhibits.omeka.net/exhibits/show/sihistory/poststatehood/logan.

Graham Jaehnig can be reached at 906-483-2202 or gjaehnig@mininggazette.com.