from the archives...

In 1898, 10,000 Illinois troops volunteered to "Remember the Maine" by fighting Spanish tyranny in the Caribbean and the South China Sea. Southern Illinoisan Major John A. Logan, Jr., son of the Civil War general and Illinois statesman, was one such patriot, having served as an adjutant-general in Cuba where he saw combat at San Juan Hill and Santiago. It was presumably while on the staff of Major-General John C. Bates that Logan came into possession of this grisly photograph, now housed in the Logan Photo Collection at the Illinois State Historical Library. The original, which bears the understated inscription "Bone pile at Havana, Cuba, 1898," is one of a pair in the collection, neither of which has ever been published. Were the bones those of vanquished Cuban revolutionaries who tried to overthrow their Spanish oppressors in the year just prior to the Spanish-American War? Are they the bodies of Cuban pacificos caught in the middle of the revolution? Who and why is the American soldier walking on top of the bone pile? The answers, unfortunately, were buried with Major Logan, who was killed by a sniper the following year in the Philippines. His mother, Mary Logan, donated the photograph and hundreds of other artifacts and war memorabilia to the state in 1907. The articles were warehoused and occasionally displayed in Logan Memorial Hall in the Illinois statehouse until the mid-1950s, and are now divided between the State Historical Library and the Illinois Military History Museum, located on the grounds of Camp Lincoln in Springfield.

historic hindsight...

Cahokia Mounds. Illinois Legislature Passes Bill Appropriating Money for Purchase of the Mounds. April-July, 1923. From the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society Volume XVI, Nos-1-2

Despite bitter opposition from many persons who believe that the Cahokia Mounds in Madison County are natural hills and not Indian remains, the Illinois legislature passed the bill appropriating $50,000 toward their purchase. The governor signed the bill. The tract containing the mounds will when the purchase is made, pass to the control of the state. Of course this tract will include only a few of the mounds in the vicinity.

Some antiquarians contend that these mounds, sixty-four in number, are tombs of the kings of sun worshipers of many centuries ago. Menaced for years by the expansion of industries in the vicinity, fear has been expressed that the mounds would be lost to the public, if the state did not take action and convert the land into a public park. Thus researches by scientists will be possible. The Cahokia Mound is the largest and has a height of 102 feet and its largest axis is 998 feet, covering slightly more than sixteen acres.

In volume, the Cahokia is the greatest earth structure of the kind in the world. The builders of Cahokia are gone. The fire which burned upon the summit, through the watches of the night, is dead and the winds have scattered the ashes, but the temple remains. That pile, beautiful to see, rich in historical association, and the hope of archaeologists, remains in all its mystery. There may be a wonderful day in Illinois when these mounds like the tomb of King Tut are opened.

ILLINOIS HERITAGE 30