Major General John A. Logan
Posted by: 
snfromky
N 37° 45.796 W 089° 20.946
16S E 293079 N 4182148
A memorial to Major General John A Logan.
Waymark Code: WMEV1
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/13/2006
Views: 60
John A. Logan was born February 9, 1826, in what is now Murphysboro, Illinois. Raised in a home that was a center of political activity, he came to love politics at an early age. At the onset of the Civil War, the formerly pro-Southern Logan decided that "the union must prevail." He fought at Bull Run as a civilian. He then returned home where his speech at Marion ended Egypt's talk of secession and put southern Illinois during the Civil War strongly in the Union camp.
Logan volunteered for the war and rose from colonel to major general. Fighting in eight major campaigns, he distinguised himself at Vicksburg and commanded the entire Union forces at the Battle of Atlanta. At the war's end, he saved Raleigh, North Carolina, from being burned by angry Union troops. Many historians consider him the premier volunteer general of the Civl War.
Logan died December 26, 1886, in Washington D.C., where he lies buried in Soldier Cemetery.
Logan's fame did not die with him as the towns and counties named for him show. Fine equestrian statues were erected in Chicago and Washington in his honor. Bronze plaques from Arlington Cemetery to Denver attest to his role in establishing of Memorial Day. Yet the turmoil of the mid-twentieth century saw Logan's fame fade. In May, 1986, the Washington Post wrote that this was "pretty shoddy treatment" for the man who founded Memorial Day.