And it was actually his wife's idea -
From the Civil War to the Philippines, the Logans served with honor
Maj. Gen. John Alexander “Black Jack” Logan, the father of Memorial Day, was also the father of a hero. Gen. Logan was a noted Union officer in the Civil War, and after the conflict served in Congress from Illinois and led the veteran’s organization the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). In the spring of 1868, his wife accompanied Gen. William T. Sherman on a tour of southern battlefields, and she noted that the Confederate graves were decorated with flowers. She suggested to her husband that Union soldiers who won the war deserved no less consideration, and Gen. Logan issued GAR General Order No. 11, which designated May 30 as Decoration Day, for “the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the defense of their country.” Congress formalized this observance as Memorial Day in 1871.
Black Jack’s only son, John A. Logan Jr., wanted to follow in his father’s illustrious footsteps. Young Jack was born shortly after the Civil War ended and grew up playing with the children of his father’s politically influential circle of war heroes. Jack was a favorite of his father’s former commander, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and rode in the presidential carriage during Grant’s second presidential inauguration....
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