Gen. William T. Sherman’s Final Recollections of His Deceased Corps Commander, John Logan
“Logan is entitled to some exaggerated encomiums [tributes] at this time. He had as you will know some magnificent qualities and some petty defects.”.
Of the nation’s neglect of Logan while living and competition among cities to inter his remains, Sherman wistfully writes, “Seven cities contended for Homer dead, Through whose streets the living Homer begged for bread.”
A U.S. Congressman from southern Illinois and a Stephen A. Douglas Democrat, when the war broke out Logan...
Of the nation’s neglect of Logan while living and competition among cities to inter his remains, Sherman wistfully writes, “Seven cities contended for Homer dead, Through whose streets the living Homer begged for bread.”
A U.S. Congressman from southern Illinois and a Stephen A. Douglas Democrat, when the war broke out Logan took a firm stance for the Union that helped reconcile his part of the state to the conflict. He then volunteered for the war, serving in eight major campaigns. He fought at the Battle of Bull Run, then returned to Illinois to serve as colonel in the 31st Illinois Regiment. He became one of U.S. Grant’s generals, distinguishing himself in the Vicksburg campaign. In November 1863 Logan was promoted to major-general. When Grant went east to command there, and Sherman took command of the entire Military Division of the Mississippi, Logan became one of his corps commanders. Logan took part in the Atlanta campaign, but was disappointed when Gen. O.O. Howard was given command of the Army of the Tennessee instead of him after Gen. John McPherson's death in battle. Logan took part in the Carolinas campaign in 1865 before resigning at war’s end. Sherman was sufficiently grateful to Longan to arrange for him to command the Army of the Tennessee during the May 1865 Grand Review in Washington. Many historians consider him one of the premier volunteer generals of the Civl War.
After the war, there was a growing movement to honor the vast numbers of war dead. Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (the organization of Union war veterans), responded to this. On May 5, 1868, in General Order # 11, he officially proclaimed May 30 as a day to be observed throughout the country to decorate the graves of the Union fallen with flowers. This day would be celebrated annually thereafter as Decoration Day, and then Memorial Day.
In his Memoirs, Sherman wrote of the 1870s, when he was General of the Army: “Congress had reduced my pay four or five thousand dollars a year, so that I was gradually being impoverished.” Logan was then a U.S. Senator, and in a position to do Sherman good or ill in this regard; he lent no hand. But the men had reconciled, and in time the worm turned and Logan’s financial fortunes suffered while Sherman’s improved. When Logan died on December 26, 1886, Sherman was selected to be a pallbearer.
Gen. Henry Slocum commanded the Left Wing of Sherman’s army, and was thus one of two generals that were second in command after Sherman himself. When Atlanta fell to Sherman on September 2, 1864, Slocum's corps was the first to enter the city.
Autograph letter signed, Army Building, New York, December 29, 1886, just three days after Logan’s death, to Slocum, remembering Logan rather fondly, and remarkably quoting 17th century English playwright Thomas Heywood. “Yours of the 27th was received yesterday. I am glad you answered the press interviewer as you did, and as was reported. Of course I do not remember the exact words at the New England dinner, but surely Logan is entitled to some exaggerated encomiums [tributes] at this time. He had as you will know some magnificent qualities and some petty defects. For a long time he rankled over the seeming injustice of my agency in making Howard instead of Logan to succeed McPherson killed in battle, and he visited on me the injustice of a reduction of pay when I could ill afford it, and succeeded in driving me out of Washington, etc.
“But with more mature years he recovered from his spasm and became more than friendly, not only to me personally, but to the Regular Army officers and men. This you must have noticed. I have had many most friendly jousts with him in debate, and on paper. I have given one of these for publication to my clerk Mr. Barrett whom Uncle Sam cannot afford to pay, and must earn his living otherwise. He will give it to the Tribune or Century for a price for his labor as a copyist. Meanwhile I must go tomorrow to Washington to act as pallbearer at his funeral on Friday. I have official notice that the funeral ceremonies will be held in the Senate Chambers at noon Friday, and that his body will be temporarily deposited in a private vault in Washington, I infer afterword to be transferred to Chicago – ‘Seven cities contended for Homer dead, Through whose streets the living Homer begged for bread’. So the world wags. Ever since the war, Logan has been toiling for a decent maintenance, died poor, and now cities contest for his place of burial.” Archival repairs at a few folds, otherwise in fine condition.
It is fascinating to learn Sherman’s final judgments on Logan, the degree of their reconciliation, and that Logan, who had contributed so much to the Union cause and the nation generally, should have been so impoverished. As for Sherman’s pensive quotation relating to Homer, and the sad human proclivity to neglect a person when living and honor he or she when dead, Homer is far from the only example. Van Gogh sold just one work of art in his lifetime and died penniless, and now cities build museums to him; Mozart was buried in an unmarked grave, and now festivals use his name to draw attendees; Edgar Allan Poe died in abject poverty and now is among the most celebrated of American authors; and Stephen Foster died with 38 cents in his pocket, and never saw his works celebrated as great American classics.

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