remarkable courage and coolness under fire: "The Confederate gunners, seeing him, turned against him every battery on the mountain, which smoked like a volcano in eruption, sending forth a hurricane of missiles, some of which plowed up the earth, while others, bursting, filled the air with flying fragments. The General, riding into this maelstrom of shot and shell, halted by the embers of a nearly extinguished camp-fire, turned coolly around, and asked his aid-de-camp for a cigar. Procuring one, the General dismounted, and leisurely picked up a brand, lit his cigar, and then remounted, puffing away as nonchalantly as though he had been in his Illinois home as he rode along, while shells and shrapnel were screaming and bursting all around him." With his coolness General Logan combined that dashing abandon that quails before nothing that will and energy and daring can accomplish-resistless, vigilant, quick thoughted, and energetic. The Confederates, retreating from Kenesaw Mountain, fell back upon Atlanta, followed by the Union troops. After some days' skirmishing, the Army of the Tennessee came in sight of Atlanta, and without the knowledge of General Sherman was attacked by the Confederates with a heavy force after it had crossed Peach Tree Creek. Soon after the battle commenced, General Logan, fighting at one moment on one side of his works and the next moment on the other, was informed of the death, in another part of the field, of the beloved General McPherson. Assuming temporary command, General Logan rode up and down his lines, bareheaded, his long black hair streaming in the wind, his service-worn slouch hat swinging in his bridle hand, and his sword flashing in the other, shouting: "Boys! McPherson and revenge!" His daring bravery, amid showers of whistling bullets and screeching shells, inspired the troops, who seven successive times met and repulsed that number of assaults. Eight thousand rebel dead left upon the field at nightfall bore mute witness to their love for their fallen chief and the bravery of his successor. General Sherman, in his official report of the battle, after mentioning the death of General McPherson, said: "His sudden death devolved the command of the Army of the Tennessee on the no less brave and gallant General Logan, who nobly sustained his reputation and that of his veteran army, and avenged the death of his comrade and commander." CHAPTER IX. THE VOLUNTEER-EZRA CHAPEL-THE CHAMPION G OF THE UNION. ENERAL LOGAN was justly entitled to the command of the Army of the Tennessee after the death of General McPherson, but West Point influence induced General Sherman to recommend instead General O. O. Howard. General Hooker (who had hardly been mentioned in connection with the position) was so angry because he had not received it that he asked to be relieved from duty, not wishing to serve under General Howard. But General Logan quietly resumed the command of the Fourteenth Corps, endeared to him by recollections of many a hard-fought field. This showed his genuine loyalty, his unselfish patriotism, and his desire to magnanimously give his whole energy and strength to the Union cause wherever he might be placed, without indulging in arrogant pretensions. Resuming command of the Fourteenth Corps, General Logan was engaged on the 29th of July at Ezra Chapel in a sharp fight, which General Howard left to his direction. The losses on both |