Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (1816-1892) - Born 3 May 1816 in Augusta, Georgia. A career U.S. Army officer, engineer, architect and United States Military Academy graduate who served as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during the U.S. Civil War and beyond. Died 2 Jan 1892 in Washington DC.
Montgomery Meigs began his military career in the 1st U.S. Artillery but soon secured a position in the U.S. Corps of Engineers. He was posted to a series of Third System coastal forts and harbors through the 1840s and 1850s to construct, upgrade and repair these facilities.
In 1850s Meigs was posted to Washington DC and supervised construction on several high profile public projects including the Washington Aqueduct and the U.S. Capitol Expansion that added two new wings and a dome.
At the beginning of the U.S. Civil War Montgomery C. Meigs was a Captain with 8 years in that grade. He was called upon to participate as Chief Engineer in a secret plan to relieve the besieged garrison at Fort Pickens, Florida, and hold that fort for the Union. The plan succeeded and Fort Pickens remained in Union hands. Even before the outcome of the Fort Pickens plan was assured, Meigs was promoted from Captain to Colonel on 14 May 1861. The next day, 15 May 1861, Meigs was promoted to Brigadier General and named Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army.
General Meigs tenure as Quartermaster General took the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps from totally unprepared for war to a massive logistics behemoth. During the duration of the war Meigs oversaw the expenditure of some $1,956,616,000 which was a vast sum of money for the time, all accurately vouched and accounted for to the last cent. Meigs said that only on two occasions did the logistics system fail to keep up, Chickamauga and Sherman's march to the sea.
During the war, General Meigs personally oversaw the creation of what is now Arlington National Cemetery from the Arlington estate of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
On 5 Jul 1864 General Meigs was breveted Major General for Distinguished and Meritorious Services during the Rebellion.
Post Civil War
After the end of the war General Meigs continued as the Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army until his retirement in 1882. During this period he continued his development of Arlington National Cemetery. He also served on many boards and commissions, conducted inspections of military facilities and spent a year on sick leave in Europe. From 1876 to 1878 he worked on architectural projects for a new National Museum, an extension to the Washington Aqueduct and on a plan for a Hall of Records. He retired from active service on 6 Feb 1882.
He died on 2 Jan 1892 in Washington DC and was buried in Section 1, Grave 1 in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. The Meigs gravesite also contains the remains of his wife, Mary, his eldest son, John Rodgers Meigs (also a United States Military Academy graduate), and several other of his children. The remains of his father and grandfather were reinterred in this site with separate markers.
