LOGAN, JOHN ALEXANDER ( IS26-s:6 . An American soldier and political leader. born in Jackson County. 111., F. bruary 11, 1s26. 11. at tended Shiloh College for a time and itod 'i limited education. At the outhre•,k of the w•ir with Mexico he enlisted as a private. 1,, ean quartermaster of his reHment, with r -ik of first lieutenant. In lie g•t,Iii ii, 1 tit the Louisville University. 81)1 was afterward- ;rid lidded to the bar. Ile was a Mel II rr i f the Illinois Legislature in 53 and in was attorney from i4.13 t ,1s57. and was elected to in as a Douglas Democrat. Ile was reideet d in 1';0. lint re simied his seat in 1861 to enter the army. He was made colonel of the Thirty-first Illinois Vohmteors, and led the regiment at Delmont, Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson: was wounded in the latter engagement, and in March, 1862, was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and a few months later major-general. In the Vicksburg campaign he was in command of a division of the Seventeenth Corps, and distin guished himself at Port Gibson and Raymond, Jackson, Champion llill, and in the siege of Vicksburg. His command was the first to en ter the town, of which he was appointed mili tary governor. lit 1863 he was put in com mand of the Fifteenth Corps, which he led until the death of McPherson, when he took command for a time of the Army of the Tennessee. On being relieved by Gen. O. O. Howard, he re turned to the command of his corps, which he led until the fall of Atlanta, when he obtained leave of absence to take part in the political cam paign for the reelection of Abraham Lincoln as President. lie afterwards rejoined his corps, leading it in the march through the Carolinas, and ultimately succeeded General Howard in command of the Army of the 'Tennessee.
He was sub.equently elected to Congress for two successive terms as a Republican. and was one of the managers of the impeachment of Presi dent Andrew Johnson. In 1871 he was elected to the United States Senate. Soon after his ad mission to the Senate he distinguished himself by a speech on reconstruction. At the expiration of his term, in 1877, he settled in Chicago and began to practice law, but after a short interval of retirement was reelected to the Senate. Dur ing his career in Congress he made a number of notable speeches, characterized by force and bril liancy. In 1880 he spoke [or four consecutive days upon the Fitz-John l'orter bill, opposing the restoration of Porter to the army. lie was a candidate for the Presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention at Chicago in 1884, and after the ballot was announced which gave that nomination to James G. Blaine, he was nominated by acclamation as the candi date for Vice-President. Soon after the defeat of the Republican ticket he was once more elected by the Republicans of Illinois as United States Senator. lie died at Washington, December 26, I886. -lames G. Blaine said of him that no other man in the history of the country had combined the elements of successful military and legislative leadership in such an eminent degree. Major General Logan wrote a volume on the Civil War, entitled The Great Conspiracy (1886), and The Volunteer Soldier of 3merica (1888). Consult Dawson, The Life and Services of John A. Logan (Chicago, 1887).