by Mark Rhoads
In Decatur, Illinois in 1866 a national organization of Union veterans was founded called the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). It would eventually include more than 400,000 members in the 1880s. Former Union Democrat Congressman John A. Logan of Murphysboro, who later became a Republican to campaign for the re-election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864, stood against popular sentiment in southern Illinois to support the Union. He became a major general during the Civil War. After the war, Logan was a Republican congressman who managed the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. He later became a US Senator from Illinois and the 1884 GOP Nominee for Vice President on a ticket with James G. Blaine which lost to Grover Cleveland. It was Logan, who as Commander of the GAR on May 5, 1868, issued General Order Number 11 to create Memorial Day, the object of which was primarily to decorate the graves of those who had fallen during the Civil War with flowers. For many years in the South, the same day at the end of May was called Decoration Day. Today, Logan is remembered in the Illinois State Song in verse four: Not without thy wondrous story, can be writ the nation's glory, on the record of thy years, Abra'm Lincoln's name appears, Grant and Logan and our tears, Illinois.
