PART II.

LOGAN IN THE WAR.

GENERAL MCCOOK DESCRIBES LOGAN AT BULL RUN-LOGAN RETURNS TO WASHINGTON AND TO "EGYPT

-THE SACRIFICES

HE MADE FOR THE UNION CAUSE-THE MAGICAL EFFECT OF HIS PATRIOTIC ELOQUENCE UPON A HOWLING MOB-HOW HE TURNED SECESSION SYMPATHIZERS INTO UNION SOLDIERS

HOW SOUTHERN ILLINOIS WAS SAVED TO THE UNION-THE EFFECT OF HIS GREAT INFLUENCE THERE.

Touching the first Bull Run, General Anson G. McCook, now Secretary of the United States Senate, himself a gallant soldier in the war and a participant, as captain of the Second Ohio, in that battle, narrated to the writer the following characteristic incident. Said he:

It was, I think, on July 18th, three days before the battle proper. We were making a reconnoissance at Blackburn's Ford, when I heard artillery-firing, and went to the front to see what was going on. Shortly after, musketry-firing began in the valley, and our men commenced to fall back, when I noticed two men in citizen's dress among the soldiers. One was my uncle, Daniel McCook; the other, a man I had never before seen, but whose striking personal appearance and actions at once arrested my attention. He wore a silk hat, which seemed strangely incongruous on a battlefield in a crowd of soldiers. He was a man of alert and vigorous frame, swarthy complexion, long and heavy black mustache and black eyes. His hands were bloody, a rifle was on his shoulder, and while at one moment he was helping to carry off some wounded man, at another, with blazing eyes and language more forcible than polite, he strove to rally the men. I afterward asked my uncle who that man was, and he told me it was John A. Logan, the Illinois Congressman.

Returning to Washington, Mr. Logan telegraphed and wrote home to Colonel White and others to raise troops in defence of the Union, and hurried back to his district at the close of the session to tell his people of his intention to follow the flag of his country, and, if need be, "hew his way to the Gulf." *

No man in the nation made greater sacrifices at this su preme moment than did Logan. Resolutions favoring secession had already been adopted by his constituents. At his own home, excitement ran high, and all one way. Almost every tie he had, save that of his patriotic wife, was arrayed against him. He had been the pride and the idol of his people, but now they spurned him, and heaped upon him the bitterest denunciation. Party ties were rent asunder, and persecution and abuse followed him everywhere. Threats of personal violence were made. So inflamed indeed was the public mind, that deeds of open defiance to the Government were imminent. There are persons now living who witnessed and will never forget the wonderful magnetic influence of Mr. Logan over men as exhibited at that stormy time, when,† mounting a wagon in the public square at

*It was upon the occasion of a presentation of a flag to his regiment, the Thirty-first Illinois, by the citizens of his native county, that Colonel Logan made use of the following emphatic language: "Should the free navigation of the Mississippi River be obstructed by force, the men of the West will hew their way through human gore to the Gulf of Mexico."

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Another instance of the remarkable effect of Mr. Logan's patriotic fervor, which occurred shortly before this, is narrated by General Grant in his Personal Memoirs. It seems that when Grant "was appointed colonel" of the Twenty-first Illinois Regiment, it was "still in the State service," and in camp, at Camp Dick Yates," near Springfield. The time arrived for such of his "ninety days" regiment as would volunteer "for three years or the war" to be mustered into the service of the United States. Congressmen McClernand and Logan being at Springfield, Ill., met Grant, and then addressed his doubtful regiment. Says Grant: "McClernand spoke first; and Logan followed in a speech which he has hardly equalled since for force and eloquence. It breathed a loyalty and devotion to the Union which inspired my men to such a point that they would have volunteered to remain in the army as long as an enemy of the country continued to bear arms against it. They entered the United States service almost to a man." Grant adds this further tribute: "General Logan went to his part of the State and gave his attention to raising troops. The very men who at first made it necessary to guard the roads in South

Marion, Williamson County,-which was now his place of residence, he addressed a vast multitude of infuriated people, who, strongly sympathizing with the South, were little less than a turbulent, howling mob. When Logan commenced to speak, it was with difficulty the mob-spirit could be restrained so that he could gain a hearing; but before he had finished the vivid picture he painted, in words of living light, of the inevitable consequences of treason and disunion to them, their children, and their country, they stood absolutely spellbound, and many were even ready to enlist in defence of that very flag which but a few moments before they would have stamped upon. And when he closed his glowing periods and told them he was going to enlist for the war ("as a private, or in any capacity in which he could serve his country best in defending the old blood-stained flag over every foot of soil in the United States"), they swarmed about him, and sent up such a shout as has rarely been heard. A friend and fellow-comrade of Logan's in the Mexican War, having in the meantime hurriedly hunted up an old fifer and drummer, was the first to shout, "Come on, boys! Let's go with Logan. Where he leads, we can fol low!" Suiting action to the words, the fife and drum struck up the familiar tune of "Yankee Doodle," and before they had marched half-way around the square, one hundred gallant fellows were in line, "keeping step to the music of the Union," each pledged to serve his country for three years, unless sooner discharged by peace being declared.

The midnight travelling and daily speaking and enlisting of soldiers for the war, during the ensuing ten days, can.

ern Illinois became the defenders of the Union. Logan entered the service himself as colonel of a regiment, and rapidly rose to the rank of major-general. His district, which had promised at first to give much trouble to the Government, filled every call made upon it for troops, without resorting to the draft. There was no call made when there were not more volunteers than were asked for. That Congressional District stands credited at the War Department to-day with furnishing more men for the army than it was called on to supply."