er, was born in what is now
Murphysborough, Jackson county, Illinois, on the 9th of February 1826.
He had no schooling until he was fourteen; he then studied for three
years in Shiloh College, served in the Mexican War as a lieutenant of
volunteers, studied law in the office of an uncle, graduated from the
Law Department of Louisville University in 1851, and practised law with
success. He entered politics as a Douglas Democrat, was elected county
clerk in 1849, served in the State House of Representatives in 1853-1854
and in 1857, and for a time, during the interval, was prosecuting
attorney of the Third Judicial District of Illinois. In 1858 and 1860
he was elected as a Democrat to the National House of Representatives.
Though unattached and unenlisted, he fought at Bull Run, and then
returned to Washington, resigned his seat, and entered the Union army as
colonel of the 31st Illinois Volunteers, which he organized. He was
regarded as one of the ablest officers who entered the army from civil
life. In Grant's campaigns terminating in the capture of Vicksburg,
which city Logan's division was the first to enter and of which he was
military governor, he rose to the rank of major-general of volunteers;
in November 1863 he succeeded Sherman in command of the XV. Army Corps;
and after the death of McPherson he was in command of the Army of the
Tennessee at the battle of Atlanta. When the war closed, Logan resumed
his political career as a Republican, and was a member of the National
House of Representatives from 1867 to 1871, and of the United States
Senate from 1871 until 1877 and again from 1879 until his death, which
took place at Washington, D.C., on the 26th of December 1886. In 1868
he was one of the managers in the impeachment of President Johnson. His
war record and his great personal following, especially in the Grand
Army of the Republic, contributed to his nomination for Vice-President
in 1884 on the ticket with James G. Blaine, but he was not elected.
His impetuous oratory was popular on the platform. He was
commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic from 1868 to 1871,
and in this position successfully urged the observance of Memorial or
Decoration Day, an idea which probably originated with him. He was the
author of "The Great Conspiracy: Its Origin and History" (1886), an
account of the Civil War, and of "The Volunteer Soldier of America"
(1887). There is a fine statue of him by St. Gaudens in