tent and some few desertions, by the criticisms of Northern newspapers on the Government and the disheartening effects of some defeats of the Eastern Army. General Logan drove that feeling out of his camp by one bold and stirring address. He told his men that "upon your faithfulness and devotion, heroism and gallantry depends the perpetuity of the Nation. Let us stand firm at our posts of duty and of honor, yielding a cheerful obedience to all orders from our superiors until by our united efforts the stars and stripes shall be planted in every city, town and hamlet of the rebellious States." In the winter of 1863, Logan's division was sent on transports to the great bend in the river near Vicksburg, and directed to dig the proposed canal through the peninsula via. Lake Providence. When the Government abandoned the project, on General Logan's recommendation, a large detail of Logan's men were placed on the cotton-padded transports and successfully ran the gauntlet of the terrible Vicksburg batteries. The transports thus obtained were used by General Logan to cross the river for the capture of Port Gibson. General McPherson, then in command of the Seventeenth Corps, and General Logan, planned the order of march, and, according to the official report, Logan and his men carried the day in the victory which followed. The enemy retreated precipitately before his division, and the next day evacuated Port Gibson altogether.

On the second week in May, General Logan and his men bore the principal part in the battle of Raymond. It was said by those who witnessed that contest, that it was one of the most daring and desperately fought battles of the

war.

On the fourteenth of May came the battle of Jackson, in which General Johnson, of the Confederate Army, was defeated by the Seventeenth Corps, under McPherson. In

that battle, Logan led his men, and, in the engagement, captured several cannon and many men.

Again, on the sixteenth the same corps was desperately engaged at Champion's Hill. The charge up that hill to the deep cut made by the highway, was one of those steady but sure advances seldom seen in war. Many soldiers can charge and rush who could not coolly, step by step, mount a hill with the enemy at the top pouring volley after volley down upon them. It was a fearful battle. There were over three thousand of the rebels left on the field. In Badeau's History of the War, he describes with minuteness the charges and counter-charges, the flanking and the firing of that fearful day wherein Logan and his division had a most conspicuous and sadly deadly part. The same historian, speaking of the close of the battle, says:

"Before the result of the final charge was known, Logan rode eagerly up to Grant, declaring that if one more dash be made in front, he would advance in the rear, and complete the capture of the rebel army. Grant at once rode forward in person, and found the troops that had been so gallantly engaged for hours withdrawn from their most advanced position, and refilling their cartridge-boxes. Explaining the position of Logan's force, he directed them to use all dispatch and push forward as rapidly as possible. He proceeded himself in haste to what had been Pemberton's line, expecting every moment to come up with the enemy, but found the rebels had already broken and fled from the field. Logan's attack had precipitated the rout, and the battle of Champton's Hill was won." General Grant, in his official report of that battle, said that "Logan rode up at this time, and told me that if Hovey could make another dash at the enemy, he could come up from where he then was and capture the greater part of their force; which suggestions were acted upon and fully realized." "The Comte de Paris in his His

tory said of Logan's victory that "This battle was the crowning work of the operations conducted by Grant with equal audacity and skill since his landing at Bruinsburg. In outflanking Pemberton's left along the slopes of Champion's Hill he had completely cut off the latter from all retreat North. Notwithstanding the very excusable error he had committed in stopping Logan's movement for a short time, the latter had through this manœuvre secured victory to the Federal army."

CHAPTER V.

Siege of Vicksburg.-Logan's Division before Fort Hill.-Three Bloody Assaults.-The Explosion.-Logan's Division the first to Enter the Town.-Logan Made Military Governor.-A Gold Medal.-General Logan as an Orator.-Placed in Command of the Fifteenth Corps.-The Atlanta Campaign.-Battles of Reseca, Dallas, and Kenesaw Moutain.-Enters Marietta.

In the renowned siege of Vicksburg, General Logan was a conspicuous figure. No other place in all the South during the war, with the exception perhaps of Richmond, was so heavily armed and so completely defended as Vicksburg. It was the stronghold of the Confederacy on the Mississippi River. The approaches to it were through deep swamps, overgrown and undergrown with vines and stout tropical vegetation, deep, and thick, and dark. The fortifications were planned by the highest military skill, and aided by the river, the bluffs, and the deep ravines, made a natural fortress stronger than anything man could build. In this city so grandly fortified, were thirty thousand experienced troops under one of the ablest generals of the Confederacy,-General Pemberton. General Grant's army, when it reached the swamps and ravines, did not number over forty thousand men, and they were worn and sick with long and difficult marching. From the nineteenth of June to the Fourth of July the siege was pressed with determination, and every approach to the city had to be gained by the severest fighting, or by the slow process of mining. General Logan commanded the center of the seventeenth corps which was

stationed opposite Fort Hill, the strongest citadel of all the fortresses about the city. Logan took part in the two terrible and general assaults which failed, and then began mining under Fort Hill. He was often consulted by General Grant, and after General Logan had blown up Fort Hill and pressed his men forward into the crater of the explosion, he advised the general assault which would have been again made on July 6th, if the enemy had not surrendered as he did, July 4th. The great French historian says, that "Logan's Division was the first to enter Vicksburg. It had deserved that honor. General Grant rode at the head."

It appears that the Forty-fifth Illinois Infantry of Logan's Division was the first to enter Vicksburg, and they placed their flag on the courthouse. General Logan had been so heroic personally, and his military ability was so strikingly shown in the fearful daily battles of the siege, that General Grant gave him the place of honor as Military Governor of the town after its surrender. His bravery and conspicuous valor as a warrior was recognized by a gold medal, struck in his honor and presented by the 17th corps at Vicksburg.

Following the capture of Vicksburg, General Logan and his men had a respite of a few months from the trials of actual battle. There was a lull all along the border, owing to the extensive preparations necessary to the great campaign of 1864, in which the question was the support of Lincoln's official acts. General Logan being then so noted a warrior, and such an acknowledged orator, he was urged by his superior officers to go North and speak in the campaign. This he did, and seldom, if ever, in the history of the Nation has a political speaker received such honor and created such patriotic fervor. The great issue was the Emancipation Proclamation, and it received his hearty support.

In one of the most remarkable speeches of our time, which