 The fifth of 11 children, Dr. Logan was born in 1788 in Monaghan
County, Ireland.Six of his siblings were born in Ireland, and
child number No. 8, Elizabeth, was born on a ship crossing the
Atlantic as the family immigrated to America in 1793.
Logan's family first lived in Maryland, then Ohio, but finally
settled in Missouri. Logan remained in Missouri through early
adulthood. He married and had two children, both daughters. His
first child died within her first year of life, and he also lost his
wife to an unknown disease early in life.
Sometime around 1824 Logan and his daughter moved to Illinois and
lived near what is now known as Murphysboro.
He remarried, to Elizabeth Jenkins, in 1824, and the couple had
10 children, their firstborn being a son, John Alexander Logan.
Before leaving Missouri, the doctor had achieved great wealth. In
addition to practicing medicine, he was a large landowner as well as
the owner of several slaves, all of which he sold when he moved to
Illinois.
Always having been politically outspoken, and labeled as a
Jacksonian Democrat, Logan served three terms in the Illinois
Legislature.
It was during that time that he met and befriended Abraham
Lincoln.
During the 1838-39 session of the 11th Grand Assembly, Lincoln,
who was serving on the Committee on Counties, introduced a bill to
establish Logan County, which he named after his friend and fellow
legislator Dr. John Logan. The bill was approved Feb. 5, 1839.
John Alexander Logan, Dr. Logan's firstborn son, reaped the
benefits of growing up in a political environment. Not only was he
influenced by his father's political activities, his uncle on his
mother's side, Alexander Jenkins, served as a state legislator as
well as lieutenant governor for Illinois between 1834 and 1836 under
Gov. Joseph Duncan.
John Alexander Logan was raised going to a country school but
also with private tutors hired by his father to augment his
education. In 1840 he attended Shiloh Academy at Shiloh Hill.
During the 1850s Logan attended law school at Louisville
University, married Mary S. Cunningham and moved to Benton.
His political career began as a county clerk and moved quickly up
the ladder to U.S. congressman.
Raised in a home that believed in slavery and supported the
South, Logan broke mold when, at the onset of the Civil War, he
proclaimed that the Union must prevail. He is credited for giving a
speech in Marion that single-handedly stopped the secession of the
southern Illinois area often referred to as "Egypt" to the
Confederate States of America.
Logan volunteered for military service and became the commander
in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. He distinguished himself
as a great leader at Vicksburg, commanded the entire Union forces at
the Battle of Atlanta, and saved Raleigh, N.C., from being burned by
the angry Union troops.
After the war, he returned to Washington as a United States
congressman.
In 1868 Logan's wife, Mary, visited the battlefields of Virginia,
among them being Petersburg.
Petersburg was first attacked by the Union Army on June 9, 1864.
The Union did not prevail that day, but later returned and took the
city for the Republic.
At the June 9 battle, Petersburg found itself in a rather
precarious position, with fewer than 1,000 volunteer troops in the
town, and with the majority of those being old men and young boys,
it took great courage, determination and a wee bit of tomfoolery to
hold the Union forces at bay.
The city had been reinforced by the Confederate Army with
trenches dug around it to support 25,000 soldiers. The Union Army
measured nearly 5,000 strong that day but assumed they were
outnumbered when they began their attack. The Confederate volunteers
fought valiantly, all the while instructing their drum and bugle
corps to play loudly a marching song, which led the Union soldiers
to believe that more troops were arriving during the battle.
At the end of the day, the Union Army backed away, but the cost
to the Confederate volunteers was high. With nearly two-thirds of
their forces wounded or killed, the Confederate troops could not
have held on much longer.
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On 1866, the women of Petersburg formed the Ladies Memorial
Association and designated June 9 to be their annual Decoration Day,
in honor of the solders who fell that fateful day in 1864. At the
annual event, they would decorate the graves of their loved ones
with tiny Confederate flags and flowers plucked from their gardens.
When Mary Logan visited Petersburg in 1868, she was so moved by
the decoration of the graves that it became prevalent in her mind
and was the first thing she spoke of to her husband when she
returned to Washington.
When he heard his wife's passionate recounting of the Decoration
Day, he was so moved that he decided that it was time for the entire
nation to honor those who had fallen.
On May 5, 1868, Logan issued the following order as commander in
chief of the Grand Army of the Republic:
General Orders
No 11.
The 30th day of May
1868 is designate for the purpose of strewing with flowers or
otherwise decorating the graves of comrades, who died in defense, of
their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in
almost every City, Village, and hamlet, church yard in the land. In
this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but Posts and
comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and
testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
(http://memorialdayorigin.info/order11.html)
A national observance was passed by Congress that same year on
June 22.
On May 30, 1870, Logan spoke to an assembly at Arlington National
Cemetery, saying: "Homage to fallen heroes is not an invention of
our days. History beams with examples how various nations in various
ages have honored their patriot dead."
He went on to say: "Shall we neglect the graves of those who
sacrificed their lives to defend the palladium of our liberty, to
perpetuate our national unity, and shield our rights forever? ....
"This Memorial Day, on which we decorate their graves with the
tokens of love and affection, is no idle ceremony with us, to pass
away an hour; but it brings back to our minds in all their vividness
the fearful conflicts of that terrible war in which they fell as
victims.
"Let us, then, all unite in the solemn feelings of the hour, and
tender with our flowers the warmest sympathies of our souls! Let us
revive our patriotism and love of country by this act, and
strengthen our loyalty by the example of the noble dead around us."
As Logan said in his speech, the history of decorating graves can
be traced back to ancient times. It was a practice of the Greeks,
Romans and many others to honor their dead in decoration and
ceremony on a certain day of the year.
Additionally, after the Civil War many towns in the Confederate
South designated their own days of remembrance and thanksgiving for
the sacrifices of their soldiers.
But it was the acts of John Alexander Logan and his wife, Mary,
who through a simple declaration urged all people to honor their
fallen soldiers on the same day each year throughout the nation,
that created Memorial Day. Perhaps this one declaration also served
in bringing a war-torn nation back to one whole again.
Dr. John Logan, for whom our county is named, did not live to see
the great accomplishments of John Alexander. But it is easy to
imagine that the Irish immigrant would have been extremely proud of
the son who served his country with honor and compassion both in
wartime and peace.
___
A Brief Biography of
John A. Logan
Memorial Day
Origin
General John A. Logan Museum
[By NILA SMITH]
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