Mississippi College Professor Writes Book on Civil War Veterans

Mississippi College professor Larry Logue is the co-author of a new book that focuses on pensions for thousands of disabled Civil War veterans.

The author in recent years of other books on Civil War soldiers, Logue teaches history and political science on the Clinton campus.

For his latest publication, Logue collaborated with Syracuse University professor Peter Blanck, who heads a disability research center at the New York school.

Their scholarly work was published in April by Cambridge University Press. It is titled "Race, Ethnicity & Disability: Veterans & Benefits in Post-Civil War America."

Beginning their research four years ago, the professors from Mississippi and New York studied data from more than 40,000 soldiers of the Union army.

"Our book finds that pension administrators treated black and foreign-born veterans differently from native-born whites," Logue said.

Although the book dwelled on the pension system for American soldiers in the 19th Century, their findings are of interest to military families and policymakers in 2010.

"The persistence of challenges for veterans with disabilities in the face of a modern revolution in disability rights is among our book's key lessons," Logue said. "Headlines warn about enormous backlogs of veterans' disability claims," noted the Jackson resident.

Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh, who served in the Cabinets of Presidents Reagan and Bush from 1988 to 1991, wrote the book's forward. The former Pennsylvania governor was instrumental in securing passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Logue met Blanck through their mutual interest in the experiences of Civil War veterans.

The Syracuse professor had published articles on veterans with disabilities. Logue studied the impact of government policies on the lives of ex-soldiers. The two academicians first joined forces to write articles relating to American veterans in the "Wake Forest Law Review" and the "Journal of Interdisciplinary History."

Logue's new book is sparking words of praise from MC colleagues.

"Dr. Logue is a remarkable scholar and dedicated teacher," said Ron Howard, MC's vice president for academic affairs. "He is just the kind of professor that brings value added to the MC classroom."

Logue, who grew up in western Pennsylvania, has taught in the Mississippi College history and political science department since 1997. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Pittsburgh and doctorate in American civilization from the University of Pennsylvania.

One of Logue's earlier books is titled "To Appomattox and Beyond: The Civil War Soldier in War and Peace."