General John Alexander Logan (February 9, 1826 – December 26, 1886) was an American soldier and political leader. He served in the Mexican–American War and was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He served the state of Illinois as a State Senator, a Congressman, a U.S. Senator, and was an unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States with James G. Blaine in the election of 1884. The 3rd Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, he is regarded as the most important figure in the movement to recognize Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) as an official holiday.
John A. Logan was born near what is now Murphysboro, Jackson County, Illinois. He studied with his father, a physician; then with a private tutor; then studied for three years at Shiloh College. He enlisted in the 1st Illinois Infantry for the Mexican–American War, earning the rank of lieutenant, though he never saw battle due to a measles epidemic. He returned home to be elected county clerk in 1849, saving his money to study law at the University of Louisville. He graduated in 1851 and practiced law with success, winning office as prosecuting attorney of the Third District.
Logan’s family was heartily Jacksonian Democratic; as such, the General entered politics as a Democrat. He was elected county clerk in 1849, served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1853 to 1854 and in 1857. In 1858 and 1860, he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Despite originally being a Southern sympathizer and Douglas supporter, Logan later became a supporter of the Union (and later the Republican Party), seeing succession as a traitorous act. Logan was in attendance at the First Battle of Bull Run as a witness Congressman, only to “join” in the fighting as a private in the 2nd Michigan Infantry; he returned home to Southern Illinois to raise the 31st Illinois Infantry. After the war, Logan reentered political life as a Republican, first as a U.S. Congressman and later as a Senator, and helped lead the effort to impeach President Johnson.
Logan’s racial views are complex, and changed throughout the Civil War. Logan sponsored the Illinois Black Codes of 1853, which prohibited all African Americans, including freedmen, from settling in the state. He changed his views on slavery after, according to Ecelbarger, seeing the reality of slavery in Tennessee in 1862. In 1865 Logan stated “I don’t consider a [negro] my equal,” while in the same breath urging Kentucky to ratify the 13th amendment. In 1863, Lincoln’s secretary John Hay wrote in his diary that “The President today said John Logan was acting so splendidly now, that he absolved him in his own mind for all the wrong he ever did.” In 1888, Frederick Douglass said concerning presidential elections: “… I am not naming candidates … If, however, John A. Logan were living I might name him.”
Logan’s likeness appears on a statue at the center of Logan Circle, Washington, D.C. He is also honored with a statue in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois. He is the honoree of Logan County, Kansas; Logan County, Oklahoma; Logan County, Colorado; Logan County, North Dakota; and Logan Square, Chicago, which is the neighborhood chosen to mark Illinois' centennial. Logan is one of only three people mentioned by name in the Illinois state song. Upon his death, he lay in state in the United States Capitol rotunda, the seventh to ever do so. He is the father of U.S. Army officer and Medal of Honor recipient John Alexander Logan Jr. (1865–1899).
You can view the graphic materials from the Logan Memorial Collection in our NEW online exhibit, available at CARLI Digital Collections.
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