The Volunteer Soldier of America; with Memoir of the Author and Military Reminiscences from General Logan's Private Journal

Chicago: R. S. Peale & Company, 1887. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good. 706 pages. Color frontis illustration. Illustrations (all present). Appendices. Index. Decorative front cover and spine. Cover has some edge wear, rubbing, and corner bumping. Front board weak and restrengthened with glue. Some rear board weakness noted--heavy book. Edges gilded. John Alexander Logan (February 9, 1826 - December 26, 1886) was an American soldier and politician. He served in the Mexican-American War and was a general in the Union Army in the American Civil War. He served the state of Illinois as a state Representative, a Congressman, and a U.S. Senator and was an unsuccessful candidate for Vice President of the United States with James G. Blaine in 1884. As the 3rd Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, he is regarded as the most important figure in the movement to recognize Memorial Day as an official holiday. His likeness appears on a statue at the center of Logan Circle, Washington, D.C. Logan is one of only three people mentioned by name in the Illinois state song. Upon his death, he lay in state in the United States Capitol rotunda. U.S. Representative Logan fought at Bull Run as an unattached volunteer in a Michigan regiment, and then returned to Washington where, before he resigned his congressional seat on April 2, 1862, he entered the Union Army as Colonel of the 31st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which he organized. Before resigning his seat, Colonel Logan served in the army of Ulysses S. Grant in the Western Theater and was present at the Battle of Belmont on November 7, 1861 and at Fort Donelson, where he was wounded. After the war, Logan resumed his political career, as a Republican, and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1867 to 1871, and of the United States Senate from 1871 until 1877 and again from 1879 until his death in 1886. In 1868, he was one of the managers in the impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. One of Logan's issues in the Senate was his efforts to stop any action taken to overturn the conviction in the court-martial of Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter. Logan was the author of two books on the Civil War. In The Great Conspiracy: Its Origin and History (1886), he sought to demonstrate that secession and the Civil War were the result of a long-contemplated "conspiracy" to which various Southern politicians had been party since the Nullification Crisis; he also vindicated the pre-war political positions of Stephen A. Douglas and himself. He also wrote The Volunteer Soldier of America (1887). Cornelius Ambrose Logan, a physician and diplomat, wrote a memoir of John Logan which was included in his The Volunteer Soldier of America. In this later work, the noted American general published this work in order to present a thoroughly researched critical history of military education in the United States, noting its various defects in both the navy and the army, considering the situation at the time he was writing, and presenting "A Demand for Justice" arguing that "the people at large are sufficiently grateful to their benefactors, but a lack of wisdom [exists among the politicians and administrators of the government]." The book concludes with "a strong appeal to the people of the United States in their own interest - the remodeling of our present military system a national necessity." In the United States troops raised as state militia were always described as "volunteers", even when recruited by conscription. Both US volunteers and regulars were referred to as "U.S." troops. The rank of an officer in a volunteer unit was separate from his rank (if any) as a regular, and usually higher. When the volunteer forces were disbanded at the end of the war, officers with both kinds of commission reverted to their "regular" rank. For instance, George Armstrong Custer became a brigadier general of volunteers during the American Civil War, but when the war ended, he reverted to captain. (He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel.) Volunteer rank is not the same as brevet rank. Brevet is a former type of military commission conferred especially for outstanding service, by which an officer was promoted to a higher rank without the corresponding pay. This is a sweeping historical tribute to citizen-soldiers, from Lexington to Appomattox. The book includes chapters on the volunteers of the American Revolution and the War of 1812, the importance of West Point, and the author's own military memories.