The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1897-07-23

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with all its breadth OF waters, the prair-
les stretching outward to the west and
the sky mingling light and cloud in an
ever-changing picture, are respondent
witnesses of the scene. The event, the
hour and the men are historic.
"Once, upon a day like this the pulse
of summer was beating hot and fierce.
when a great leader fell, as leaders must
fall, if it be so appointed. Some are here
10 whom it seems but yesterday. They
remember the clustering pines, the thick
cts. dark with the foliage of July, the
spires of Atlanta wooing them forward
yet little further and they remember,
too as they will remember always, the
me ssage, speeding like an arrow in its
fight, that told how Mcpherson lay dead
in his harness, ere yet his fame had
passed its dawn. Surely, l am not
wrong in saying that never was this ma
ton In more deadly peril than when the
army of the Tennessee was left, like
some great rudderless ship. in the grasp
| of the Storm
"'Of what avail are men, says Car
| lyle, when we must needs have man.?
But the man came; nay, he was already
there, flashing, as was his wont, in that
| imperious way which scorns to parley
with fate, but subdues it with glance.
On that day--July o. 1S64-John A. Lo-
gan was born to immortality.
THAT day at Atlanta had none of the
romantic surroundings which give arti-
fetal renown to battlefields. No pyra-
| mids, hiding the grim secrets of the CEN
turtles, looked down upon them. 1t was
not Lodi, where a general could dash
across a bridge to victory. There were
no narrow paths to glory. 1t was breast
| to- breast fighting, such as seldom comes
| in any war; confused mass struggling
against an enemy that was everywhere.
And in the midst of them was Logan
chief, not because of his epaulets, but
because the command had fallen on oN e
who knew what to do and could not
breathe until it was done.
John A. Logan, only thirty-five years
| of age, was already striking figure in
| our national politics. He sat in the
| House of Representatives that body
which touches the people at every point,
| and in it he was a tribune. Himself
| triumphantly reelected the preceding
autumn, he had seen his party beaten,
| his adored leader, Douglas, defeated
and what to him was infinitely worse,
his country hopelessly drifting into civil
war. In those sad days, every heart
| had it's own sorrow. No one, can doubt
! that he remembered, as true men do,
| his party ties; the friends who had beer.
so staunch; his boyhood services in the
war with Mexico; and those nameless
| tender affections which link strong ma
lures to the scenes of childhood. May
| hap, too, he thought of future, over
| cast and clouded, of shattered hopes
and plans that never could be realized.
| Then came the test Out of the cruel
| BILE the metal flowed, melted indeed
| but melted into fineness. John S. Logan
was, in the heart of him, gold. He was
not the man to cover before any re-
| sponsibilty, for in his veins was that
| rich Celtic blood which makes the reso-
| lutte, onward character. OF such men
| Tennyson was thinking when he sang:
| ooh. we'll for him whose will is strong;
| He suffers, but he will not suffer long;
| He suffers but he cannot suffer wrong.
Logan cut the knot, as brave men do.
He went into the war before he had
legal right, and fought al Bull Run un :
der no appointment but that of his OWE
undaunted heart. On that ill-starred
| i
| the Capitol as they had never pondered
| before. Doubtless the record Of Con-
gress shows that Logan was absent
without leave. But out beyond the Po-
tomac he was fighting, musket in hand,
in the ranks of the fated Army of tbs
| Union. He had deserted the House to
| be volunteer for the war. They tell of
| him yet, as he pressed forward through
| the smoke. in the silk hat he had forgot
ten to change, but which never became
him SO much as when it lowered that
day over his swarthy face. and those
eyes, which were, indeed, the windows
| of his soul.
After Bull Run he went back to his
home in Southern Illinois, facing friend
and foe alike, with the defiant note
which told the-what they already
| knew-that, come what might, he was
for the Union and war. That day he
conquered Egypt Everywhere he sowed
| the words that Douglas had uttered:
There can be but two parties: patriots
and traitors" Then came the regiment
he raised and, after that, in a bravs
orderly sequence, Belmont, Donelson,
Shiloh, Vicksburg. Atlanta andr-peace."
After describing the character of Lo-
! gan, and his temperament, in eloquent
words, the speaker said:
Later when the war was almost
over, and the inevitable triumph was
plainly visible, there came to him an
opportunity which would have been
trial and temptation to most men. But
| it was not to him. Grant sent him to re-
lieve Thomas, and in doing So gave no
| tice to all the world that Logan was fl
for high command. 1t was one of the
most picturesque situations of the war.
| The Army of the Potomac was holding
the Confederacy by the throat, while
| Sherman, marching to the sea, was cut
ting all its veins and arteries. Mean
while, Thomas, with beaeaguered Nash
vile at his back, was making ready
slowly but surely for the blow that
should kill Grant, the imperturba BILE,
seeing the whole field, was for once i'm
patient, and could wait no longer. He
called for his Thunderbolt, and sent Lo-
| gan, whom no one had ever thought
| slow, to make the fight. l could name
| men with stars on their shoulders who
would have seized that opportunity to
| humiliate the man whose lineage ran
| from Mill Spring. through Corinth, Muir
| freesboro and Chickamauga to Atlanta.
| He like Logan had hecon,e q tvpe ua