Colonel John Logan Black CSA (circa 1863)

Col. John Logan Black

SC 1st Cavalry Battalion

SC 1st Cavalry Regiment

John L. was born in Cherokee County, South Carolina on July 12, 1830. He was the son of US Representative James Augustus Black who died in Washington D.C. April 3, 1847. James Augustus was a very successful businessman. He owned the Kings Mountain Iron Works in Cherokee County, South Carolina. He also served as a Lieutenant during the War of 1812.

James Augustus’ father was the Patriot Joseph Augustus Black who fought in the Battles of Cowpens and Eutaw Springs (visit Revolution in the South).

In September 1850, at the age of 20, John Logan enrolled in the United States Military Academy at West Point when Robert E. Lee was Commandant. He left in 1853 without completing the required 4 years to become a commissioned officer in the United States Army. Instead, in October 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate Army and was assigned to the First Regiment of South Carolina Cavalry as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was promoted to full Colonel in June 1862.

At the Battle of Gettysburg, John L. was a member of Hampton’s Brigade under the command of J.E.B. Stuart, but he was terribly sick the whole time with typhoid fever.

Most accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg describe it as lasting 3 days, from July 1st to July 3rd, but it really was a rolling affair that started in June when Lee began to maneuver his troops and quartermaster wagon trains into Pennsylvania. The major fighting at Gettysburg did end on July 3rd with a disaster to the Confederates known as Pickett’s Charge.

By the end of the 3rd of July, 50,000 men had died at Gettysburg, nearly one of every three soldiers who participated in the battle.

Retreat from Gettysburg

On July 4th, Lee started to retreat, but he wanted to take all the provisions he had accumulated with him; which, after all, was why he was there in the first place. This was a fighting retreat and the Union Army wasn’t going to let him get away easily.

On July 6th, 1863 Colonel John Logan Black was ordered to proceed from Williamsport on the north bank of the Potomac River out along the Cumberland Valley Turnpike to organize the retreating cavalry, teamsters, wagoners, wounded soldiers and stragglers who stretched out all along the road.

In his memoirs, "Crumbling Defenses", John L. recounts:

Following Lee’s retreat from Gettysburg, John L., after several other assignments, was ordered to the defense of James Island in the middle of Charleston harbor. After a terrible cannonade by the Union forces, James Island and along with it Charleston was lost.

Lee retreated all the way to Appomattox, where he finally surrendered on April 9, 1865, one week after John Logan’s 35th birthday.

The end of the Civil War came shortly thereafter.

REF: Black, John Logan, Crumbling Defenses, or Memoirs and Reminiscences of John Logan Black, Colonel, C.S.A.

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