I Shall Stand For This Union

I Shall Stand For This Union. . , On August 19, 1861, then-U.S. Congressman and future Major General John A. Logan delivered his pivotal speech on this site. The speech resulted in the region remaining loyal to the North during the Civil War., Recruiting the 31st Illinois Volunteers , In February 1913, Cosmopolitan Magazine printed "Recollections of a Soldier's Wife by Mrs. John A. Logan." The following excerpts are from that article. , In the crowd was an old fifer, Luke Sanders, six feet four inches in height and very large in proportion, who had been in the home regiment which had started for the Mexican War. I had arranged for him to come up and bring his fife, and he had promised that a signal from J.H. White, he would go up to Mr. Logan, give him his hand as a volunteer, and then play a patriotic air on his fife, whereat Mr. White and a few others were to continue the volunteering. , Mr. Logan did not know of these plans, and when he saw the herculean figure of this old comrade striding through the crowd toward him, he utterly lost control of his feelings for the moment. It is needless to add that I wept with happiness - for my husband had won, and my bit of stage managing had succeeded. , At the sound of Sanders's fife and the beating of an old drum by Gabriel Cox, who had been a member of the drum corps of the same regiment and who had been hunted up and brought to tow, the line began to fillup. , Soon my husband jumped down from the wagon and gave the command, "Forward! March! And started around the Marion Square, followed by one hundred and ten men, or more than the full roster of a company. All were enrolled for "three years or during the war.", The ugly spirits who a few hours before were boasting and threatening all sorts of bloody deeds had darted, thanks to the determined attitude of the new soldiers. , "The time has come when a man must be for or against his country, not for or against his state," said Congressman Logan; "I, for one, shall stand or fall for this Union and shall this day enroll for war."