Who was the post named for?
John Alexander Logan, an attorney from southern Illinois, was first elected to the U. S. Congress in 1858. As the Civil War opened he left a session of Congress to participate in the Battle of Bull Run.
Logan resigned from the House of Representatives and returned to Illinois to organize the 31st Regiment of Illinois Volunteers in September 1861. He was appointed Colonel of the volunteer regiment and rose to the rank of Major General.
At the conclusion of the war, Logan returned to law practice in Illinois and was again elected to Congress in 1866. Later he became a U.S. Senator.
John A. Logan was a founder and three-term commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the organization formed for Civil War veterans. In 1868 Logan sent a directive to the local units of the GAR to organize a Decoration Day on May 30th to decorate graves of the Union Army veterans. This tradition has continued until today; now known as “Memorial Day.”
He was a candidate for Vice President of the U.S. in 1884, but was defeated. Logan died in 1886 and the following year his book The Volunteer Soldier was published. In April 1889 the “Camp Near the City of Denver” was named “Fort Logan” by the Secretary of War to honor Logan’s services to his country.