Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1886-12-28
A BRILLIANT CAREER.
Sketch of the Busy Life of the D;stin.
guished Soldier.

suishSh SoAuitis
However men may differ as to the calibre
| of John A Logan's craftsmanship, no one
will deny that he was one of the most re-
markable men in public life, with a remark
| able career behind him and remarkable
| hold upon the masses of people
| Logan was developed by the war The
| cavalry bugler sounded the keynote of his
character, AMI in an atmosphere of dust and
| powder he grew great A country lawyer,
| who found his highest ambition in stirring
the languid blood of the criminal jury,
sprang suddenly to the head of an army,
without previous military education, by the
mere force of his courage and his martial in
stinctS He was the representative Of the
ioval millions, the beau ideal of the volun.
teer soldier, and as such in history will he
| live
The story that he has Indian blood in his
veins is myth, founded upon the color OF
his skin and hair, and is totally untrue. His
father was a physician, John Logan by
| name, and came to America from Ireland
only three years before the senator was
born His mother was Elizabeth jenkins,
| and her family lived in Tennessee Logan
was born at Murphysboro, a little town
among the hills that hem in the Mississippi
river, and was the eldest of eleven children
His early education was such only as the
frontier afforded, and was gained at his
mothers knee and in the log school house
where an itinerant teacher at intervals pre-.
sided When he was IS years old he was
sent to the nearest school, called Shiloh
academy, under the jurisdiction of the Meth
odist church, and graduated from it into
the Mexican war. He joined the First Hi
nois regiment as private. but the military
instinct developed, and he afterwards be-
came lieutenant, and served both as adju
tant and Guartermaster of his regiment. At
the close of the war he went into the law
office of his uncle, Alexander Jenkins who
was great man in southern Illinois, Il Jack
spnian Democrat, and at one time lieutenant
governor of his state.
1t was the love of contest that took him al
once into politics, and in 1851 he was elected
clerk of jackson county. Be means of the
revenues Of this office be was enabled to
carry on his law studies and took course of
lectures at Louisville during the following
year. which constituted and completed his
legal education. At once upon his return
from Louisville, in 1872, he was elected pro
scouting attorney Of jackson county, and
went to the state legislature in the following
year; being reelected and gaining local
leadership in the Democratic party, which
was recognized by his appointment as preS-
Dental elector on the Buchanan ticket in
lSj6
At this point he began his career as a
stump orator, and his speeches We're consid-
cred remarkable examples of eloquence, Civ
ing him reputation that sent him to con-
gresS in 1888. He was an earnest Douglass
man, and, being renominated to congress in
1860. stumped the state with great success
Right here came critical period in his
career, and although there are men who still
| assert that his sympathy was with the seces-
sioniSts there is plenty of evidence that the
south had no claim upon him; that. what
ever 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 mothers
family Were secessionists, and his surround
ings made loyalty unpopular. The story
that he rendered his services to Jefferson
Davis, is contradicted by that gentleman,
| who says BE- never heard of Logan until
more than a wear after the war begun.
There are several witnesses to the fact that
| w -N'-h'IibEir fSHty N-itll ltjlCDil ttSClIUH
was assured and threats were freely made
| that he should not be inaugurated. Logan
| publicly declared that he would shoulder
| 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 repre-
sentatives did, to visit the army in Virginia,
and being the guest of Col Richardson when
| the battle of Bull Run took place, he was
| given a musket and fought through that
ereatful July day a private in the ranks
When congress adjourned in August he
went home and at once raised a regiment
| the Thirty first Illinois, which went into
| battle Mt Belmont two months after they
were mustered into the army. In the siege
| Of Fort DonelsOn Logan actively engaged.
and was badly wounded in the left arm. His
| gallantry here and at Belmont made him a
| brlgadier- general, and from this time his
| star rose rapidly. He was given command
| OF a divsionin McPherson's corps, and made
| a malor-general before he had been a year in
| the army.
In 1852 he declined denomination for
congress, believing that he could serve his
country best in the field
In Grants winter campaign in Mississippi
and in the siege of Ficksburg Logan bore
conspicuous part, ard his bravery as leader
was proverbial, In the battle of Champion
Hill Gen. Grant sent an aide to inquire
whether Logan could not push his men for
ward little. Logan's profane but charac-
| teristic reply was: "Tell Gen Grant my
division can whip all the rebels this side of
HI and will push forward till he gives us
orders TO halt
When Grant was sent TO the Army Of the
Potomac and yielded to Sherman the CON-
maud of the division of the Mississippi I.o-
gan succeeded the latter as commander Of
the famous Fifteenth Army Corps, and fol-
lowed Sherman in the march to the sea. In
the desperate assault upon Hood at Atlanta
Logan fought as he never fought before, and
when Mcpherson fell he took command of
the Army of the Tennessee, and with resist
less fury avenged the death of the beloved
commander.
The displacement of Logan from position
which he had earned and the promotion Of
Howard to McPherson's place was blow
from which the general never did recover
1t came very near deriving the army of one
Of It's most gallant and valuable officers He
considered it a. cruel and unc allied for humil-
Iation, and but for the entreaties of friends
would have rendered his resignation. But
he remained with the army until the evacua-
ton of Atlanta, when he went to Illinois to
stump the state for Lincoln. After the cleo
ton he returned to camp, and led his CORPS
in the remarkable campaign through the
Carolinas. After the surrender of johnson
he marched his men to Alexandria, and rode
at their head in the grand review at Wash
ingtOn.
After being mustered out of the army he
was rendered the Mexican mission by presi-
dent johnson, but declined it, and, covered
with glory, returned to his home in ILLINOIS, |
where his political career was resumed. He
WIS nominated and elected as congress
man-at-large from Illinois, and served as
such until his election to the senate to fill the
seat Of Richard Yates in 1870. During his
service in the house he was an active par |
ticipant of the debates and took strong |
grounds in favor of the radical reconstruc-