As Quartermaster General after the Civil War, Meigs supervised plans for the new War Department building (constructed between 1866 and 1867), the National Museum (constructed in 1876), the extension of the Washington Aqueduct (constructed in 1876), … He was born in Augusta, Georgia. Check out our website to see availability and all that the Brandywine Valley has to offer. Civil War historian James McPherson calls Meigs “the unsung hero of northern victory.” Civil War General Montgomery Cunningham Meigs was born in 1816 in Augusta, Georgia, to Doctor Charles Delucena Meigs and his wife Mary Montgomery Meigs, both descended from wealthy and educated families. Meigs County in the Civil War MEIGS COUNTY IN THE CONFEDERATE WAR By V. C. Allen, 1908. Robert O'Harrow talked about his book on Montgomery Meigs, Union quartermaster general during the Civil War. This book was the first lengthy treatment of Meigs I have seen, though that perhaps is more an indictment of my reading habits than of Civil War literature in general. Although Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs, who served as the Quartermaster General of the Union Army, was commissioned as an engineer with no formal logistics training, his pre-Civil War assignments, innate intelligence and integrity, as well as an iron will all contributed to his ability to succeed in arguably one of the toughest assignments in the military at that time. "General," the President said wearily, "what shall I do!" Meigs' services during the Civil War included command of Lietenant General Ulysses S. Grant's base of supplies at Fredericksburg and Belle Plain, Virginia (1864); command of a division of War Department employees in the defense of Washington at the time of Jubal A. Robert O'Harrow, Jr. (Author) Simon & Schuster (October 25, 2016) General Montgomery C. Meigs, who built the Union Army, was judged by Lincoln, Seward, and Stanton to be the indispensable architect of the Union victory. The time was 1862, and the principals in this small footnote to history were Abraham Lincoln and Brevet Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs. Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs The United States Army in April, 1861 On the eve of the Civil War, the regular United States Army consisted of 16,000 soldiers, most of which were deplo… Meigs Quartermaster General, during the Civil War, was definitely an Unsung Union Hero. Montgomery C. Meigs, pictured in a group of men in front of the Capitol in 1859, oversaw the expansion of the structure before devoting himself to the Civil War effort. After the Civil War, he was a member of the Commission for the Reform and Reorganization of the Army. Rank: Brigadier General, Brevet Major General Lincolns general, master builder of the Union army”. Meig's name comes up frequently in general Civil War books, but usually only briefly or as a side story. GENERAL MEIGS. C. Meigs ont thte Civil War 287 guarded account of the matter in the National Intelligencer of Sep-tember i6, I865, called out by a Tribune editorial of September I2. The founding of Arlington National Cemetery f. ollowed a tumultuous four years as the country was embroiled in civil war. The Revolutionary War hero Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs, Sr. was his great-great-grandfather. Captain Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (May 3, 1816 – January 2, 1892) was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, construction engineer, and Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War. On his mother's side, he was the grandson of Commodore John Rodgers, the naval hero of the War of 1812. Henry's (Corporal George Henry Moulton, Co I, 38th Regiment Mass. The lifetime accomplishments of Montgomery Meigs (1816-1892) make this 2016 book by Washington Post Reporter Robert O'Harrow, Jr. a great read. Civil War Union Army Major General. But it is an advantage to have in full the contemporary private record of a principal participant in this extraordinary transaction. Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (born January 11, 1945 in Annapolis, Maryland) is a retired United States Army General.He is the great-great-great grandnephew of Montgomery C. Meigs. Why not visit the home of General Meigs’ father and mother and learn more about him. They operated a system of field depots and a transportation network to deliver the goods to the Soldiers. Civil War Union Army Officer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton stated that without the efforts of Quartermaster General Meigs the Civil War may have been lost or at least greatly imperiled. Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (/ˈmɛɡz/; May 3, 1816 – January 2, 1892) was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, construction engineer for a number of facilities in Washington, D.C., and Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War. It was, perhaps, one of the darkest moments of the entire Civil War. His father was Major General Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, who was also in the Civil War. Correspondence, diaries, journals, notebooks, military papers, family papers, scrapbooks, drawings, maps, plans, sketches and studies, photographs, and other papers relating primarily to Meigs's work in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, his service as quartermaster general during the Civil War, and family matters. For instance Meigs arranges an evacuation of freedmen from Ile a Vache, “a faltering effort by Lincoln to create a colony…” This was not a Lincoln project but that of an entrepreneur named Harold Kock. Compiled by Dennis Doyle, MHS Historian December 2014. Michael Burlingame and John R. Turner Ettlinger, editor, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 191 (April 28, 1864). Volunteer Infantry) flurry of letters from the U.S. General Hospital in York, PA, during October 1864 speak of his desired transfer to the Civil War Hospital facility at Readville, MA. He served with the Corps of Engineers for a quarter of a century and in 1861 became Quartermaster General. Camp Meigs and the U. S. General Hospital at Readville, MA. He was appointed to West Point from Pennsylvania, in 1832, and was graduated at that institution in 1836, ranking the fifth in his class, and receiving the appointment of Second Lieutenant First Artillery. As quartermaster-general after the Civil War, Meigs supervised plans for the new War Department building (1866-67), the National Museum (1876), the extension of the Washington Aqueduct (1876), and for a hall of records (1878). It is Lincoln who rescues the colonists by directing Meigs to evacuate them. The diaries end before the Civil War. General M. C. Meigs Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, born in Augusta, Gal, 3 May 1816, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1836. “The lively story of the Civil War’s most unlikely—and most uncelebrated—genius.” —The Wall Street Journal General Montgomery C. Meigs, who built the Union Army, was judged by Lincoln, Seward, and Stanton to be the indispensable architect of the Union victory. General Mi. I can’t believe I never heard of him, but he is as much responsible for the North winning the Civil war as any general or President Lincoln. With equal doggedness, Meigs rooted out incompetent administrators, who were rife in a system built on political patronage, and replaced them with men selected on merit. He was a desk-bound, pencil-pushing bureaucrat in some eyes. During the Civil War, Major General Montgomery C. Meigs led the Quartermaster Department as it expanded to support an Army over 900,000 strong. ... General Kirby Smith met the brigade on arrival of the train and took command. GENERAL M. C. MEIGS, whose portrait we here give, was born in Georgia. Montgomery C. Meigs – An Icon of the Civil War By Steve Rolfe Montgomery Meigs was a Civil War general who never saw a real battle but had a major impact on virtually every battle that was fought during the war. Meigs saw to the army’s equipment and supplies, as the army expanded from 16,000 men to more than 700,000 in the first year. This is a book review of Robert O’Harrow’s 2016 book “The Quartermaster.Montgomery C. Meigs. Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (May 3, 1816 – January 2, 1892) was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, construction engineer for a number of facilities in Washington, D.C., and Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War. Commissioned into the Artillery, he held a … “General M. C. Meigs on the Conduct of the Civil War”, American Historical Review, Volume XXVI, 1921, p. 292-293. In addition to equipping and supplying the Union Armies during the Civil War, General Meigs supervised the construction of the Washington Aqueduct and the dome and wings of the United States Capitol. Quartermasters purchased clothing, equipment, animals, and services at an unprecedented pace. During the Civil War, Meigs served as the Quartermaster General for the Union Army. Only one man seemed tailor-made for the job: Maj. Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, the quartermaster general of the Union Army and a West Point–trained civil engineer and architect. The Family History of General Meigs. Early in the war, Meigs was instrumental in exposing the rampant fraud in General John C. Frémont’s Western Department and helping push the general from his post. Mistakes continue. 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