Meigs, Montgomery Cunningham

Life Span
to
Full name
Montgomery Cunningham Meigs
Place of Birth
Birth Date Certainty
Exact
Death Date Certainty
Exact
Gender
Male
Race
White
Sectional choice
North
Origins
Slave State
No. of Spouses
1
No. of Children
4
Family
Charles Meigs (father), Mary Montgomery (mother), Louisa Rodgers (wife, 1841), John Rodgers Meigs (son)
Education
University of Pennsylvania
West Point (US Military Academy)
Occupation
Military
Military
US military (Pre-Civil War)
Union Army

Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (American National Biography)

Scholarship
Meigs was an irascible man who spent forty-six years in the service of his country. He was a talented architect and engineer, but his tenure as quartermaster general was perhaps more significant as it ushered in a new age of modern military bureaucracy. Meigs's appetite for staff work, insistence on departmental honesty, and attention to the minutiae of supplying troops in the field rendered him one of the most effective administrators of U.S. Army history. His unsung efforts certainly facilitated the eventual Union victory. His eldest son, John Rodgers Meigs, was a talented Union officer who was allegedly murdered by Confederate partisans while scouting the Shenandoah Valley on 3 October 1864. His commanding officer, General Philip Sheridan, was so outraged that he burned all houses and farms within five miles of the place of his death.
John C. Fredriksen, "Meigs, Montgomery Cunningham," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00518.html.
Chicago Style Entry Link
“Meticulous Mr. Meigs.” American History Illustrated 15, no. 7 (1980): 34-37 view record
Weigley, Russell F. “Montgomery Meigs.” Civil War Times 3, no. 7 (1964): 42-48. view record
Weigley, Russell F. Quartermaster General of the Union Army. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. view record
How to Cite This Page: "Meigs, Montgomery Cunningham," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/6249.