Having
been wounded at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, Lt. Col. James O. Churchill of the
Eleventh Illinois Regiment found himself in a hospital bed beside that of Col.
John A. Logan on the steamer New Uncle Sam. Soon Brig. General U.S. Grant’s
chief surgeon came aboard the headquarters steamer, examined Churchill, shook
his head, and said there was nothing he could do for him.
Hours
later the wounded man opened his eyes to find a woman bending over him. Having
followed Federal forces as closely as the war zone permitted, Mrs. Logan had
come to nurse her husband. Finding Churchill to be the more seriously injured
one, she turned her attention to him. Under her constant care, Churchill
recuperated so rapidly that the hospital boat City of Memphis took him board and
kept him until he was able to return to his unit.
