American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

Gents,

I've recently gotten a pretty interesting book from the History Book Club

<b>Black Jack Logan: An Extraordinary Life in Peace and War
by Gary Ecelbarger
The Lyons Press, 2005</b>

I'm not all the way through the book, but I've found it to be an absolutely fascinating read. Now, I'll be blunt and say that strictly from a military point of view, there isn't anything brilliant there. It does trace his history through the war, from his first action at Belmont, through his moment of glory at Atlanta and beyond. However, the commentary on military affairs are fairly pedestrian.

You don't really get a true feel for his abilities as a military commander. You get alot of mention of his riding into battle in a Sheridan-esque manner, inspiring his troops. There are hints that he may have left himself open to attack or ambush on occasion, but the book doesn't deal with those issues enough to make a fair judgement. Likewise, when it speaks of Sherman's decision to appoint O.O. Howard in his place, it says that Sherman's stated reason was that Logan didn't have a feel for logistics or grand strategy. However, the book never examines if that is a fair criticism. If Sherman was right, that would certainly be a good reason to keep him in a Corps Commander role, as opposed to something higher. However, the author just lets that drop, so it's hard to judge.

One interesting bit that's mentioned is that there was at least some consideration of sending him to the Valley to take over Crook's Corps under Sheridan. Considering that both of them were best known for "rides" where they rallied broken armies, it would have been an interesting combination.

Where the book really shines is in dealing with him as a person. Now, in many ways, the book is almost a "canonization" of Logan, but that doesn't get rid of the interest. It details his change from a "comprimise democrat" in 1861 to a Hard War man who stumped for Lincoln in 1864. It would be nice to get into his head a bit more in mid 1861, but I suspect that there isn't enough evidence to do so.

It's also mentioned his change from proposing blatently racist laws in the Illinois Legislature to being a champion of the black population after the war, but I haven't seen much since then. Since I'm just up to early 1865 at this point, I suspect more of that will be coming later (I hope so).

While not a perfect book by any means, I'd certainly encourage you to look at this, as it provides an interesting look at this man and the politcs of the West in the Civil War era

Brig. General Gary McClellan
1st Division, XXIII Corps
AoO,USA