Thomas M. Logan was born in 1840 in Charleston, South Carolina. Logan's family is
of ancient Scottish descent.[1] He was the son of George William Logan, a local judge, and Anna D'Oyley Glover;[2] a sister was the painter Lillie Logan.[3] His great-great grandfather was Christian Thomassen Muldrup, His Danish Majesty's Consul for Scotland and the North of England, born 1721 and married to Honoria Bray. Logan received his education at South Carolina College, located in Columbia. He graduated in 1860, standing first in his class.[4]
Civil War service
When the American Civil War began in 1861, Logan chose to follow his home state of South Carolina and the Confederate cause. He volunteered for the Washington Light Infantry, which participated in the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12–13.[2] Later that month he was appointed a second lieutenant in the Confederate Army, and in May he was promoted to first lieutenant and joined Wade Hampton'sLegion. Logan was assigned to Company A of the unit, which had been formed in Charleston.[5]
Logan was wounded for the second time during the Battle of Riddells' Shop on June 13, 1864. He was appointed a temporary brigadier general on December 1, but it was not confirmed by the Confederate Congress, and reverted to a colonel.[5] However, during that short time Logan was the youngest general officer in the Confederate Army.[2] In early 1865 Logan served with Hampton during the Carolinas Campaign, and was promoted to brigadier general on February 15.[7] He served in Petersburg as well as fighting in the Battle of Bentonville from March 19–21. Logan surrendered along with the rest of Hampton's forces on April 9, and was paroled on May 1 from Greensboro, North Carolina.[8]
Postbellum career
After the end of the war in 1865, Logan returned home to his civilian life. That May he borrowed $5 USD from a friend and married Kate Virginia Cox (1840–1915), the daughter of James H. Cox, a judge from Chesterfield County, Virginia. The couple would have nine children, but were survived by only a son and three daughters.[9][10]
Logan began to study law and entered into the railroad industry. After the Civil War, he became president of the Port Walthallspur line of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad. The spur was destroyed in the War and never restored.[11] He was then the "principal organizer" of what would become the Southern Railway, and was often associated in businesses with American industrialist/philanthropist John D. Rockefeller. Entering politics as well, Logan was part of the Virginia Democratic Executive Committee in 1879 and the Virginia "Gold Democrat" party in 1896, serving both as their chairman.[6]