Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/32

Rh Colonel Charles Wilson, editor of the Chicago Journal, and a party of prominent women from Boston and Chicago, came to Washington in February, 1868, and invited General and Mrs. Logan to go with them to Richmond to visit the historic ground around that city. His duties in Congress prevented General Logan from going, but Mrs. Logan went, and when she returned, she told her husband of the simple decoration on the Confederate graves. This touched him deeply, and he at once alluded to the custom, which prevailed among the Greeks, of honoring the graves of their dead with chaplets of laurel and flowers. As Commander-in-Chief of the G. A. R., he immediately issued the order for the annual decoration of the graves of the loyal deceased. He also interested himself in getting the bill through Congress, setting apart a day for the honoring of the graves of dead soldiers as a legal holiday, and he succeeded in accomplishing this design of his patriotic heart.

It was a terrible blow when this strong man, of whom she was so proud, was stricken down with illness, and after a short illness was taken from her, and Mrs. Logan was left alone in the stately colonial mansion which she had struggled so hard to possess, worked so long to adorn and joyfully opened to the public on all occasions in the hospitable régime of this statesman's career which now lay broken. Face to face with the misery of a broken tie, of a lost love, and a severed companionship, Mrs. Logan's strong heart and courage faltered. But quickly came that inspiration for work and constant occupation of mind which had impelled all her moves in life, and her achievements since General Logan's death have been of a character to mark Mrs. Logan one of America's foremost daughters even if naught of distinction had gone before. Mrs. Logan had children; other relatives too were dependent upon her and her financial circumstances were not easy, for General