Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-04-17
Logan and Porter.

lire. During two terms or congress,
General Logan succeeded in organizing
such opposition to similar bills for the
reinstatement of Porter as to secure their
defeat. Eloquent and unanswerable as
were Logan's arguments in former de-
bates against Porter, there is a record
of Legan's acts in the Union army which
is more eloquent than his or any other
mans oratory. Remember, Fitz John
Porter had no fancied or real grievance
against General Pope, who had sue
ceeded Mcclellan in command of the
Army of the Potomac. Porter was dis
satisfied because of this change of COM
manders, and, in full hearing of the
guns which told their story of the en-
gagement and ultimate reverse of the
Union army, deliberately disobeyed re-
peated orders sent him to advance
Contrast this INSTRUMENTATION, which
caused the needless death of thousands
of Union soldiers at Bull Run, with the
conduct of General Logan in front of At
lanta.
On the 22d of July, 1864, General
James b. Mcpherson, commander of
the Army of the Tennessee, was killed
about midday in the heat of battle at
Atlanta, Ga. The command fell upon
General John A. Logan, until then at
the head of the Fifteenth Army Corps,
as senior officer. He took up the direc-
ton of the battle where the brave Nc
Pherson had laid it down, and, with
Sherman dozen miles away, won one
of the most brilliant victories which had
been achieved by Union arms. BY right
OF seniority and most successful leader
ship in battle, he was clearly entitled to
the continued command of the Army of
the Tennessee. For reasons never sat
isfactorily explained. General Sherman
saw tit to transfer General o. o. How
ard from the Army of the Cumberland
to the Army of the Tennessee. Here
was the cause for dissatisfaction and dis
content. All through the Army of the
Tennessee imprecations, loud and deep,
were uttered against such apparent in
justice to commander who had earned,
but could not wear, his honors. A
word or look of encouragement from
Logan would have led TO open resistance
to the new commander. That word or
look of encouragement to insubordina-
ton never came. He could have asked
to be relieved, or could have resigned,
| as did Joe Hooker and John NJ Palmer
He did neither. He went back to the
command of his old corps, the Fifteenth,
and, six days afterward, at the battle of
Ezra Church. on the 2Sth of July, gave
such an exhibition of manly generosity
and military heroism as is rarely re-
corded in military annals. On that day
the Fifteenth Corps was in reserve. 1t
was a new position for commander and
followers. The arms of the troops were
stacked in line of battle on the color
the bayonets. About noon the Confed-
crate army made a sudden and vigorous
charge along the entire front line oppo-
site the Fifteenth Corps, and at the same
time strong column struck the ex-
| IRENE right of the front line of the Union
| army at right angles and in reverse.
| The charge was so sudden and well sus-
! tanned that the Union line was doubled
up and the defenses were abandoned
rapidly. Howard had only that day as
sumed command of the Army of the
Tennessee. Had Logan waited for the
word of command, as he could easily
| and obediently have done, Howard
| would have been forever disgraced as a
military leader and Logan would have
been avenged. But at whose expense?
AT that of thousands of brave soldiers,
innocently slaughtered, and an incalcu-
liable reverse to the Union cause. With
the sound of rebel yells and rebel guns
in front, he did not wait for orders, but
mounted his horse, and without waiting
even to put on his coat, or to be accom-
panied. by his staff, he ,galloped down
| the line, shouting 'sFall in!'' For
wardr' When the men answered,
| "Where is our regiment?" sWhere
are our officers?n he uttered expletives
not found in the Book of Common
| Prayer, and repeated his commands,
| Fall imp Forward" An Iowa Off
Ger, who took an honorable part in that
battle, said of it:
1.-The Confederates could not with
stand this sudden, unexpected, resistless
charge of Logan; and, although they
| fought desperately to maintain the ad-
vantage gained by their hard fighting,
| they were soon in confusion and swept
| from the field. Our lines were re-estab-
| lished and the day was won. Twice
| to the attack, but were each time re-
pulsed.n
An Illinois officer in the Seventeenth
Army Corps thus wrote of what be saw
after this battle of the 2Sth of July,
fought by Logan without orders:
II went over the field to witness the
effects Of the terrific musketry which we
heard from our position on the left of
Logan's command. | never saw the
dead lying thicker on any battlefield.
| remember well the dead of the Thrift
eth Louisiana Regiment. The Colonel,
Lieutenant Colonel and Major all lay
about equal distances apart, with SO
many men lying between that the lines
could be readily traced. At this point
of the field | saw where saplings two
and three inches in diameter had been
cut off by musket balls. In corn-field
about 200 yards in front of Logan's line,
the crop of growing corn had been
mown by musket shots as thoroughly as
if it had been cut by scythes. | was
told at the time that this portion of the
| field was in front of the Iowa brigade
commanded by General George A.
| Stone, and consisting of the Fourth,
Ninth. Twenty-fifth, Twenty Thir-
tieth and Thirty-first regiments of Iowa
Infantry"
This is a brief statement of the con-
duct of General John A. Logan under
circumstances calculated to test his pat
riotism 1t is for him to cite this his
tory by way of comparison with the his
tory of Fitz John Porter's conduct at
Bull Run, but there it is, mole eloquent
as a stimulus to patriotism than any
words which are likely to be spoken in
Senatorial debate. - icago journal.
The Tariff ON Wool.
One of the means by which the Demo-