CDV of then 2nd Lt. Thomas Muldrup Logan, circa 1861. (Source)
Thomas Muldrup "Mully" Logan was born in Charleston, SC, November 3, 1840; the tenth child of Judge George William and Anna D'Oyley Logan. He spent much of his boyhood on the family plantation house in St. Paul's Parish, SC.
In 1860 he graduated from South Carolina College, first in his class. With the outset of the war the following year, Logan enlisted as a private in the Washington Light Infantry, later Company A of the infantry portion of Wade Hampton's Legion. He was soon after elected second lieutenant, then promoted to first lieutenant in May.
Fighting with Hampton's Legion at First Manassas, Logan rose to captain, in command of the company. After participating in the Peninsula Campaign in spring of 1862, the infantry of the Legion would become part of Hood's Texas Brigade. Logan was wounded in the foot in the brigade's charge at Gaines' Mill, however he refused to leave the command, continuing to lead his men into action at Second Manassas and Antietam.
Taking part in Longstreet's attack on Pope's flank in the former, Lt. Col. Martin W. Gary wrote in his official report that "Capt. T. M. Logan, by his brilliant fighting, won the admiration of everyone." At Antietam, during the vicious action around the Miller Cornfield, the Legion carried only 77 officers and men into action and reported a loss of 55 killed and wounded. In Lt. Col. Gary's report he cited Logan and several other officers as "bearing themselves with great bravery, having shared the same dangers of their less fortunate comrades." Major J. H. Dingle of the Legion having been killed in the battle, Logan was promoted to major in his place. Only a few months later, with the promotion of Gary to colonel, Logan would rise to the rank of lieutenant colonel in December.
During that autumn, the Hampton Legion infantry was organized into a full-strength regiment and transferred to Brig. Gen. Micah Jenkins' South Carolina Brigade. They would take part in the siege of Suffolk in spring of 1863, but miss Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. It was while stationed around Richmond that summer when Logan met his future wife, Kate Virginia Cox, of Chesterfield County, VA.
Jenkins' Brigade rejoined Longstreet's Corps when it was sent to the Western Theater in September 1863, arriving too late to see action at Chickamauga, but serving at Chattanooga (including the battle of Wauhatchie) and in the Knoxville Campaign. Several times throughout those campaigns, Jenkins placed Logan in command of all skirmishers for the entire division; and according to a report by Longstreet, he "always managed it with courage and skill."
Returning back East by spring of 1864, the Legion was separated from Jenkins' Brigade and mounted (not in any way associated with the cavalry portion of the Legion, which became the 2nd SC Cav). Col. Martin W. Gary was promoted to brigadier general in command of a cavalry brigade, including the mounted Hampton Legion. Logan then assumed command, promoted to colonel, May 19, 1864.
Shot through both arms in a skirmish at Riddle's Shop, June 13, he was put out of action for several months and nursed back to health at the Cox residence, Clover Hill.
Later that year, he was offered and accepted command of Matthew C. Butler's cavalry brigade. Promoted to brigadier general on February 15, 1865, that made Logan one of the youngest generals in the Confederacy, at only 24 years old.
He led the brigade in the Carolinas Campaign under Wade Hampton, fighting at Bentonville and serving as the rear guard, until Joe Johnston officially surrendered the army at Bennett Place, Durham, NC, on April 26, 1865. During the surrender, Gen. Sherman noticed Logan for his youthful appearance. One source says that Sherman then offered him a train ride to Raleigh, NC, upon learning that he needed a ride home, while another says that he discussed the burning of Columbia after hearing that Logan was from South Carolina. Logan's father and four sisters had been in Columbia when it was burned, having left their home in Charleston, and were forced to evacuate the city. His brother, Dr. Samuel Logan, rode to Columbia to look after the family, while Thomas rode all the way to Virginia to check on his fiance, Kate Virginia Cox.
They were married just a month after the war ended. Together they would have nine children, though were survived by only a son and three daughters. Moving near Richmond, Logan studied law while his father-in-law, Judge James Henry Cox, also made him president of Clover Hill Railroad. He later began a very successful career in the railroad industry, and was a principal organizer of what is now the Southern Railway. Also entering politics, Logan served as chairman for the Virginia Democratic Executive Committee in 1879, and the Virginia "Gold Democrat" party in 1896.
At 73 years old, he died in New York City on August 11, 1914, and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.
References:
A Builder of the New South: Notes on the Career of Thomas M. Logan by Lily Logan Morrill
My Confederate Girlhood: The Memoirs of Kate Virginia Cox Logan edited by Lily Logan Morrill
A History of the Hampton Legion Infantry by O. Lee Sturkey
This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place by Mark L. Bradley
Obituary in the New York Times, Aug. 12, 1914
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