Submitted by Donna W. Collins
Andrew Logan was born December 5, 1831, Marion County, Alabama to Robert "Bob" Logan and Virginia Jane "Jennie" McCaleb. The Logans were staunch Republicans and Church of Christ believers. Robert had been raised as a Presbyterian but was supposedly converted by Andrew Campbell.
The eight brothers, born between 1823 and 1847 all supported the Union cause although the oldest, Daniel Lapsley "Lap" Logan could not enlist for medical reasons. Because of a hernia, he was unable to serve in the Union Army with his brothers but he helped build bridges for the Union forces. It is possible Lap died from tuberculosis although it is rumored he was murdered and his body tied on the back of horse, taken home, and thrown into the yard.
Andrew voluntarily enlisted with the Union Army, July 24, 1862, at Huntsville, AL, as a private, by Captain Bankhead for three years, with Company K, 1st Regiment of Alabama volunteers. He was sick with typhoid fever and in Number 13 hospital, Nashville, Tennessee, from November 1, 1862 until January, 1863. After he was discharged from the hospital, he was assigned February 1, 1863 to Company E, 1st Regiment of Middle Tennessee Calvary. He was captured at Rome, Georgia, on May 3, 1863 and confined at Richmond, Virginia on May 9, 1863. He was paroled at City Point, Virginia on May 15, 1863 and reported to Camp Parole, Massachusetts on May 18, 1863. Andy was sent to C.C.O. on May 19, 1863 and then reassigned to Company K, 1st Regiment, Alabama Calvary on June 9, 1863, which was commanded by Col. George E. Spencer. He was promoted to Sergeant on November 1, 1963 by order of Col. Spencer and was on daily duty as commanding sergeant of Company K, 1st Regiment, Alabama Calvary until June of 1865. On June 15, 1865, Andrew entered Number 4 hospital, Nashville, Tennessee with symptoms of malaria fever and mumps that he had contracted at Huntsville, Alabama. After being in the hospital 20 days, he was released upon request and since he was not fit for service, he desired to be mustered out with the Regiment in order to be assisted home by his comrades. He was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant on July 19, 1865, at Nashville, Tennessee by reason of termination of the war. He was an Alabama Torie after the war.
Andrew had been a farmer before the war and had received a land grant for a farm in Fayette County, Alabama in 1857. In 1868, he purchased a farm near Yampertown and the Luxapallila Creek in Guin, Marion County, Alabama near his parents. He also moved his widowed sister, Betty Elizabeth Logan Hunt and her four children there to live with him.
He married Catherine Elizabeth "Cathern"Cothern on March 12, 1876 in Gold Mine, Marion County, Alabama. Cathern was the daughter of Gabrial Cothern and Mary Jane Clement, born June 27, 1847 in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
In the fall of 1881 Andy moved his family, Cathern’s mother and her grandson Ben to another farm near the Buttahatchee River. It was located east of where the Old Haley Post Office stood years ago on what was then called the Tuscaloosa-Russellville Road in Marion County, Alabama. They stayed there and worked the land for about ten years.
Andy then purchased another farm in the New River area, still in Marion County and moved his family there in 1891. By then he and Cathern had seven children of his own along with several family members living with them. He donated land from this farm to build the Gold Mine Church of Christ building, the cemetery and the school building that once stood at a corner of the cemetery.
As a result of exposure and illness during the war, Andy became disabled in his later years. He walked with a limp and had to use a cane. His last home was only a quarter of a mile from Gold Mine, where he would walk to pick up his mail. He would walk to the road and sit down in the shade, waiting until someone came along to give him a wagon ride to town. A few days before he died, he realized his time was short and told Cathern to stay where they were living and not move from place to place. On the day he died, he called her to him and asked to "stay close by me today" shortly before he passed on. Andy and Cathern were buried in the family plot of the Gold Mine Church of Christ Cemetery, Marion County, Alabama.
Service records compiled by Glenda Todd and used with her permission. This and other information about the history of the First and the men who fought with the unit
can be found in her book, First Alabama Cavalry, USA: Homage to Patriotism.