John A. Logan, called "Black Jack" by the men he led in Civil War battles from the Henry-Donelson campaign through Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and on to Atlanta, was one of the Union Army's most colorful generals.Perhaps the most capable of the political generals, Logan earned a reputation as a courageous, efficient officer, rising from regimental to army commander. But as a Democrat, Logan at first denounced Mr. Lincoln's war, personifying the thoughts, doubts, and frustrations of the divided section of southern Illinois known as "Egypt." Gradually, though, both Logan and Egypt came to the support of the Union. In 1861, Logan returned to the badly divided region to raise the 31st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment for service in the Union Army.James Pickett Jones places Logan in his Egyptian surroundings as he examines the role of the political soldier in the Civil War. When Logan altered his stance on national issues, so did southern Illinois. Although secession, civil strife, Copperheadism, and the new attitudes created by the war contributed to this change of position in southern Illinois, Logan's role as the section's political and military leader was important in Egypt's swing to strong support of the war against the Confederacy, to the policies of Lincoln, and eventually, to the Republican party. Read Less