Father of Memorial Day featured in Branson West Museum display

BY JIM ZBICK, Faith, Family & Country Heritage Museum

     On April 16, 1866, a group of Union veterans gathered on the steps of Crab Orchard Christian Church outside of Carbondale, Illinois, and watched as a war widow and her children placed flowers on the grave of their fallen husband and father.

    Just a year after the bloody four-year Civil War that cost 750,000 American lives, the veterans themselves gathered wildflowers after the family left and began decorating the headstones of other veterans buried in the graveyard.

Two weeks later, most of those same veterans attended an official civic ceremony for the war dead held at Carbondale's Woodlawn Cemetery to hear a speech by John A. Logan, an influential Civil War general and politician from their home area. Having been wounded three times in the war, he was highly respected among veterans. 

     Logan was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1858 and retained his seat in the election of 1860. After the war, he resumed his career in politics and achieved additional fame by becoming the first head of the Grand Army of the Republic, the organization for Union Army veterans. 

     On behalf of this organization, he recommended the creation of Memorial Day. Known originally as Decoration Day, the first national observance was on May 30, 1868 at Arlington Cemetery. Logan later stated the creation of that day to be “the proudest act" of his life. 

     Logan’s personal lap writing desk is on display at the Faith, Family and Country Heritage Museum in Branson West, Mo.

     Today, a stone marker at the Woodlawn Cemetery recognizes this as the first site of a Decoration Day ceremony. Etched in stone are the words: “Tell my wife, tell my sister, mother, that I died with my face to the enemy; that my country might live; that the principles of liberty and freedom might be enjoyed; and that they might be protected by the laws and Constitution.”    

      Charleston, South Carolina, however, may be credited with the first “unofficial” memorial observance when formerly enslaved people honored Union prisoners of war in May of 1865, just weeks after the war ended. One Charleston resident at the gravesite ceremony noted the “mounds of dirt, still fresh with the marks of the hoofs of cattle and horses and feet of men.” 

      Logan was arguably the most successful of the Union army's political generals. The son of a prosperous physician and slave-owning farmer who became active in Democratic politics, he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a fiery speaker and military leader dedicated to preserving the Union. 

     After serving as a volunteer with the 2nd Michigan at the First Battle of Bull Run, Logan rose up the officer ranks rapidly. After being severely wounded at Fort Donelson, he received a promotion to brigadier general while recuperating.

     By March of 1863, Logan was a major general commanding a division. He continued to lead with distinction during the campaign to capture Vicksburg and continued to earn recognition for his leadership during the Atlanta campaign. On May 23, 1865, he was given command of the Army of the Tennessee, just in time to lead it in the Grand Review, the post-war military procession and celebration in Washington, DC.

     Civil War historian and author Gary Ecelbarger measured the legacy of John A. Logan by stating that he “may be the most noteworthy 19th century American to escape notice in the 21st century.