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The Quartermaster

Page 31

by Robert O'Harrow


  Dozens of the lodges: Mark P. Slater, Historic Structure Assessment Report, Superintendent’s Lodge: Memphis National Cemetery, National Cemetery Administration, US Department of Veterans Affairs, January 2011, www.cem.va.gov.

  In another collaboration: Annual Report of the Quartermaster-General to the Secretary of War (Washington, DC: US GPO, 1872), 17; John Kleber, ed., The Encyclopedia of Louisville (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001), 740.

  He also had a: Michael Mills, “Commissary Sergeant’s Quarters, Building 42, Fort Myer, Virginia,” in Building of the Nation’s Capital, 112–19.

  In 1877: Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building (Museum Building) Historic Building Survey, National Park Service, HABS no. DC-298.

  Meigs attended the Centennial: James D. McCabe, The Illustrated History of the Centennial Exhibition, Held in Commemoration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of American Independence (Philadelphia: National, 1876), 816.

  The board of regents: Report of the U.S. National Museum, in Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, June 30, 1903, United States National Museum (Washington, DC: US GPO), 238–42.

  His plans called for: Report of the U.S. National Museum, 246–48.

  It had an open: Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building (Museum Building) Historic Building Survey; Arts and Industries Building, National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, National Park Service, www.nps.gov.

  It is still considered: Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building (Museum Building), Historic Building Survey.

  CHAPTER 34: “SOLDIER, ENGINEER, ARCHITECT, SCIENTIST, PATRIOT”

  In 1875, on special: Annual Report of the Quartermaster-General to the Secretary of War, fiscal 1875 (Washington, DC: US GPO), 19.

  Meigs described the typewriter: Montgomery Meigs letter, July 19, 1891, copy, Meigs family papers, courtesy of Louisa Watrous.

  We learn from his: Montgomery Meigs letters, September 1875, Meigs Papers, LOC, shelf 18,202.1, reel 20.

  “It is impossible”: Ibid., September 17, 1875.

  Meigs thought that: Weigley, Quartermaster General, 355.

  On February 6, 1882: Abbott, Memoir, 315; Meigs, Cullum’s Biographical Register.

  Others had waited: Washington Post, editorial, February 8, 1882.

  “The corps has seen”: Abbott, Memoir, 323–24.

  The federal Pension Bureau: National Register of Historic Places—Nomination Form, Pension Building (National Park Service), www.nps.gov.

  By the early 1880s: Linda Brody Lyons, A Handbook to the Pension Building, Home of the National Building Museum (Washington, DC, National Building Museum, 1989), 26.

  Meigs’s design drew on: Nomination Form, Pension Building, section 8a.

  Plans showed a building: Annual Report on the Construction of the New Pension Building, September 3, 1887, The Executive Documents of the House of Representatives, 50th Congress, First Session, 1887–1888 (Washington, DC: US GPO, 1889), 1345.

  Just as he did: Nomination Form, Pension Building, 4; Lyons, Handbook, 14–17.

  He documented each: Lyons, Handbook, 23.

  His theory about the space: Annual Report on the Construction of the New Pension Building, 1343–44; Nomination Form, Pension Building, 4.

  Meigs took care to: Kathryn Allamong Jacob, Testament to Union (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), 63–68.

  For the building’s west entrance: Jacob, Testament to Union, 67.

  Still others joked: “Little Known Story of Meigs Barn Told,” Washington Post, March 6, 1964.

  Sherman or Sheridan: Jacob, Testament to Union, 67. Note: This quote remains apocryphal, but it captures the skepticism about the building at the time.

  by 1985, the great: Paul Goldberger, “Museums Set the Tone in Architecture,” New York Times, September 8, 1985.

  Meigs continued to crackle: Memorial Record of M. C. Meigs.

  The request came in: McClellan, McClellan’s Own Story, 154.

  Meigs did not want: Montgomery Meigs letter, May 24, 1888, Meigs Papers, LOC, shelf 18,202.1, reel 20.

  “Many military names”: Meigs, Conduct of the Civil War, 299.

  Meigs did not get: Louisa Taylor oral history and memoirs, 12.

  In a habit begun: Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, National Museum of American History, Archives Center, Collection no. 881, box 17.

  “The idea of that”: Louisa Taylor oral history and memoirs, 13.

  Early on January 2: “Gen. M. C. Meigs Dead,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), January 2, 1892.

  Honorary pall bearers: “At Rest at Arlington,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), January 5, 1892.

  “The Army has rarely possessed”: General Orders No. 2, Headquarters of the Army, January 4, 1892, General Orders and Circulars, Adjutant General’s Office 1892 (Washington, DC: US GPO), 1893.

  “M. C. Meigs”: McColloch, Men and Measures, 269–70.

  INDEX

  A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

  abolitionist movement, 36, 52, 60, 78–79

  acoustics, US Capitol and, 27–28, 66

  Adams, Charles Francis, 114

  Adams, Henry, 18

  African Americans, 18, 190, 229

  Alabama, 203

  Alexander I, Czar of Russia, 118

  Allegheny Canal system, 50–51

  Allen, Robert A., 129, 232

  American Association for the Advancement of Science, 43

  American Historical Review, 243

  American (“Know-Nothing”) Party, 57, 63–64, 65, 89, 115

  Anaconda Plan, 120

  Anderson, Robert, 93, 110

  Andersonville prison (Camp Sumter), 229

  Antarctica, 43

  Antietam (Sharpsburg), Battle of (1862), 169–70, 171, 173, 174

  Appomattox Court House, Va., 223, 228

  Aqueducts of Rome, The (Frontinus), 21

  Arlington National Military Cemetery, 206–8, 217, 228, 244

  Armed Liberty (Crawford), 50

  Army, Confederate, 95

  Army of Northern Virginia, 183, 193

  supply and provisioning of, 165–66, 182, 183, 190, 193, 209

  Army, Union:

  animal forage needs of, 125, 128, 131, 133, 134, 139, 157–58, 167, 187, 195–96, 197, 202–3, 214, 222

  Army of the Cumberland, 176–80, 192–99

  Army of the Potomac, 140–43, 145–46, 151, 152–53, 157–62, 166–71, 181–88, 194, 202–6, 212–13, 227

  Army of the Shenandoah, 215

  Army of Virginia, 163–65

  artillery and, 118, 119, 133, 198, 202, 210

  firearms and, 118, 125, 136, 204

  flying columns and, 168–69

  freed slaves and, 190, 229

  horses and, 176–80, 187, 192, 196, 202–3, 205, 227

  Lincoln’s assassination and, 224

  living off the land and, 176–77, 178, 179–80, 204, 219, 220

  Meigs’s appointment to quartermaster generalship of, 111–16

  mobility reforms and, 166–69

  Quartermaster Department of, see Quartermaster Department, US

  rapid early build-up of, 117–18

  transport and, 118, 120, 121, 122, 125, 130–31, 132–33, 139, 141, 152–53, 158–59, 166–68, 173, 183, 184, 185–87, 194–99, 202–3, 204–5, 221, 227

  Washington defense and, 155–56, 183, 209–13

  waste and, 136–37

  Western Department of, 126–29

  see also specific battles and campaigns

  Army Corps of Engineers, US, 7, 85, 89, 140, 177, 188

  Fort Delaware and, 9–10

  Richard Stanton and, 33–34, 46–47, 48

  Totten and, 13, 1
9–20, 62–63, 64, 98, 105, 155, 210

  Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1 (Whistler), 48

  Arthur, Chester A., 239

  artillery, 118, 119, 133, 198, 202, 210

  Arts and Industries Building (Smithsonian), 236–37, 242

  Athens, ancient, 31, 32

  Atlanta campaign, 203, 213–15, 218, 219

  Atlantic, SS, 108, 109–10

  Bache, A. D., 27, 28, 43, 66, 221

  balloon corps, 121, 139, 182

  Baltimore, Md., 29, 111, 185, 209, 210

  Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad, 78, 145, 185, 188, 194

  Banks, Nathaniel P., 156, 162

  Barton, Clara, 205

  Bates, Edward, 148

  Battle Cry of Freedom (McPherson), xi

  Battleground National Cemetery, 236

  Beauregard, Pierre G. T., 119, 123

  Bell, John, 89, 91

  Belle Plain, Va., 205

  Bierstadt, Albert, 71

  Billings, John D., 159

  Black, Jeremiah S., 86

  Black Hawk War, 93

  Black Republicans, 88, 94

  Blair, Francis Preston, Jr., 98, 112, 127, 129

  Blair, Montgomery, 112, 113, 127, 128–29, 142, 212

  Board of Engineers for Atlantic Coast Defenses, US, 10

  Board of Trade, 137–38

  Bogardus, James, 42

  Booth, John Wilkes, 225

  Boston, Mass., 20, 27, 44

  Boston Post, 66

  Bradford, Augustus, 212

  Bragg, Braxton, 193, 198

  Brandy Station, Battle of (1863), 181

  Breckinridge, John C., 73–74, 89, 90

  bricks, 28–29, 39, 41, 56

  bridges, 42, 51, 69, 72, 81, 99, 101, 185, 194, 197, 204–5, 214–15

  Brooklyn Bridge, 51

  Brooklyn Navy Yard, 2, 108

  Brooks, Noah, 182

  Brooks, Preston, 53, 55

  assault against Charles Sumner, 55

  Brown, Albert Gallatin, 76

  Brown, Harvey, 107, 108

  Brown, John, 54, 78–79, 83, 88

  Brumidi, Constantino, 44–45, 48, 49, 75, 84

  Brunel, Isambard Kingdom, 42

  Buberl, Caspar, 242

  Buchanan, James, 57, 58, 59, 71, 73, 84, 96, 100

  corruption and, 82, 85

  Floyd and, 64–65, 76, 78, 82, 85–86, 93–95, 98

  inauguration of, 61

  Buena Vista, Battle of (1847), 12, 24

  Bull Run (Manassas), first Battle of (1861), 118–24, 144, 147

  Bull Run (Manassas), second Battle of (1862), 165

  Burnside, Ambrose E., 12, 173–75, 179, 181

  Bushnell, Horace, 228

  Butler, Andrew P., 55

  Butler, Benjamin, 205

  cables, wire, 50–51

  Calhoun, John C., 74

  California, 12

  Cameron, Simon, 108, 112, 114–16, 118, 119, 134, 137–38, 143, 145, 206

  Camp Sumter (Andersonville prison), 229

  Capitol, US:

  acoustics of, 27–28, 66

  art and decorations of, 30–32, 44–45, 51, 66–67, 71, 83–84

  brickwork of, 28–29, 39, 41, 56

  Buchanan inauguration and, 61

  dome of, 2, 37, 49–51, 80, 81, 99, 100, 111, 201, 225

  1851 fire in, 16–18, 37

  expansion of, 2, 24–29, 30–32, 33–34, 37–38, 39, 40, 44–45, 48–51, 52–53, 56–57, 60, 62, 65–67, 71, 72–75, 80–81, 99, 100, 111, 201, 234

  Lincoln funeral and, 225

  Lincoln inauguration and, 100–101

  Meigs’s derrick at, 50–51, 100, 111, 201

  carbines, 204

  Carolina campaign, 221–22, 225–25

  Carondelet, USS, 149

  cast iron, 28, 49, 50

  Catholics, 58, 63–64

  Cavalry Bureau, US, 180

  Chancellorsville, Battle of (1863), 181, 182

  Chandler, Zachariah, 76

  Charleston, S.C., 1, 93, 94, 95, 105, 191, 221–22

  Chase, Salmon P., 141, 142, 165, 200, 243

  Chattanooga, Tenn., 192, 193–99, 203

  Chattanooga, USS, 197

  Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal, 10, 32, 71, 247

  Chickamauga, Battle of (1863), 192–93

  Child, Pratt & Fox, 130

  Christman, William, 206

  Cincinnati, USS, 149

  Cincinnatus, Lucius Quinctius, 45

  Civil War, US:

  Anaconda Plan and, 120

  battlefield looters and, 187–88

  contract corruption and, 125–31, 143, 145, 158, 178–79, 192, 215

  demobilization and, 227–28

  Floyd and, 94–95, 150

  Fort Sumter and, 110, 119, 121, 148

  Lee’s surrender and, 223, 228

  new technology and, 121, 124, 133, 135, 139

  railroads and, 118, 121, 123, 125, 130–31, 133, 134, 135, 140, 145, 146, 156, 164, 173, 185–87, 188–89, 193, 194–95, 203, 204, 210, 214–15, 218, 222

  shipping and, 118, 125, 133, 152, 221

  Clay, Henry, 74

  Cluss and Schulze, 236

  Coast Survey, US, 27, 43

  Colorado, 36

  Columbia Protecting Science and Industry, 237, 242

  Compromise of 1820, 35

  Compromise of 1850, 36, 88

  Conestoga wagons, 167, 192

  Confederate States of America, 1, 74, 133

  Davis and, 98, 105, 165, 171, 172, 175–76, 222

  Emancipation Proclamation and, 172

  foreign recognition and, 169

  Provisional Constitution of, 98

  Congress, US:

  Canadian border defenses and, 11

  Capitol expansion and, 26, 28, 33–34, 49, 56–57, 71, 72, 73–75, 81, 83–84, 100

  Civil War and, 121, 129–31, 135–36, 138, 139, 175–76, 205, 209, 211

  election of 1858 and, 73

  library of, 16–18, 37, 61, 75

  National Academy of Sciences and, 221

  national cemeteries and, 206, 234–36

  Pension Bureau Building and, 240

  slavery issue and, 12, 35–36, 55–56, 233

  Smithsonian and, 13

  Sumner assault and, 55–56

  transatlantic telegraph and, 60

  transcontinental railroad and, 35

  Washington water supply and, 19, 23–24, 40, 46–47, 48–49, 53, 57–58, 61, 69, 72, 84–86, 101

  see also House of Representatives, US; Senate, US

  Congressional Globe, 129

  Constitution, US, 12, 88

  Constitutional Union Party, 89

  Corcoran, William, 45

  cotton, 134–35, 168

  Covode, John, 82, 84

  Cozzens, Peter, 157

  Crawford, Thomas, 31–32, 44

  “Crime Against Kansas, The” (Sumner), 55

  Crimean War, 109

  Crystal Palace (London, England), 42

  Cumberland River, 149

  Cumberland Road, 7

  Custer, George Armstrong, 216

  Darwin, Charles, 42

  Davis, Jefferson:

  Capitol expansion and, 24, 27, 28, 32, 33-34, 37, 45, 51, 52, 59–60, 66, 73

  Confederacy and, 98, 105, 165, 171, 172, 175–76, 222

  imprisonment of, 232–33

  John Rodgers Meigs and, 76

  Mexican War and, 12, 24

  Senate and, 60, 85–86

  War Department and, 24, 27, 28, 32, 33, 37, 38, 45, 51, 52, 59–60, 69

  Washington water supply and, 24, 32, 69, 85–86, 99

  Davis, Varina, 232–33

  Decatur, Stephen, 6

  Delaware, Fort, 9–10

  Delaware River, 5, 9–10, 20

  Democratic Party, 12

  see also elections, US

  depots, 133–34, 167, 171, 185, 192, 203, 222

  derricks, 50–51, 100, 111, 201

  Detroit, Mich., 1
1, 13, 21

  Dickens, Charles, 18

  Dickinson, Edward, 46

  Dickinson, Emily, 46

  Dickinson College, 235

  diseases, 19, 33, 42–43

  Douglas, Stephen A., 32, 35, 36, 45, 48, 55, 71, 76

  election of 1858 and, 87

  election of 1860 and, 88–89, 90

  Lincoln inauguration and, 100

  Douglass, Frederick, 78

  Dry Tortugas, 86, 90–92, 95–97, 110

  Eads, James, 148, 149

  Early, Jubal, 209–12, 215

  Eastman, Seth, 14

  Edward, Arthur, 197

  Egypt, ancient, 69

  elections, US:

  of 1856, 57–58

  of 1858, 73

  of 1860, 87–89, 90–91, 115

  of 1862, 169

  of 1864, 209, 219

  Emancipation Proclamation (1863), 171–72, 180

  Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 57

  Essex, USS, 149–50

  Everett, Edward, 31, 89

  evolution, theory of, 42

  Fairfax Court House, Va., 122

  False Claims Act (1863), 131

  Fillmore, Millard, 19, 57

  Five Forks, Battle of (1865), 222

  Florida, 112

  Floyd, John B., 62–65, 71, 72, 76–77, 78, 80–82, 83, 84–86, 89–90, 93–95, 98, 100, 176

  Civil War and, 94–95, 150

  flying columns, 168–69

  Foote, Andrew, 148–49, 150, 151

  Fort Donelson, Battle of (1862), 149, 150

  Fort Henry, Battle of (1862), 147, 149–50

  Fort Stevens, Battle of (1864), 212–13, 236

  France, 106, 118, 137, 169

  Franklin, Benjamin, 39

  Franklin, William B., 81, 99–100, 141

  Fredericksburg, Battle of (1862), 173–74, 175

  Fredericksburg, Va., 204, 205

  Freedom Triumphant in War and Peace (Crawford), 50, 99, 201

  Frémont, John C., 57, 126–29, 130

  French and Indian War, 106

  frescos, 44–45, 48

  Frontinus, Sextus Julius, 21, 68, 69

  Fugitive Slave Act (1850), 36

  Garrett, J. W., 188, 194, 195

  Geary, John W., 156

  Georgia, 203, 213–15, 218–20, 229–30

  German Americans, 63

  Gettysburg, Battle of (1863), 184–88, 192

  Girard College for Orphans, 25

  Goodwin, Doris Kearns, 115

  Grant, Ulysses S., 191, 228, 243

  Carolina campaign and, 225–26

  freed slaves and, 190

  Mexican War and, 12

  Overland Campaign and, 202–5

  Petersburg and, 209, 219, 222

  Tennessee and, 149–50, 151, 196–99

  Vicksburg and, 190

 

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