The Quartermaster: Montgomery C. Meigs, Lincoln's General, Master Builder of the Union Army

The lively story of the Civil Wars most unlikelyand most uncelebratedgenius (The Wall Street Journal)General Montgomery C. Meigs, who built the Union Army and was judged by Abraham Lincoln, William Seward, and Edwin Stanton to be the indispensable architect of the Union victory. Born to a well-to-do, connected family in 1816, Montgomery C. Meigs graduated from West Point as an engineer. He helped build Americas forts and served under Lt. Robert E. Lee to make navigation improvements on the Mississippi River. As a young man, he designed the Washington aqueducts in a city where people were dying from contaminated water. He built the spectacular wings and the massive dome of the brand new US Capitol. Introduced to President Lincoln by Secretary of State William Seward, Meigs became Lincolns Quartermaster, in charge of supplies. It was during the Civil War that Meigs became a national hero. He commanded Ulysses S. Grants base of supplies that made Union victories, including Gettysburg, possible. He sustained Shermans army in Georgia, and the March to the Sea. After the war, Meigs built Arlington Cemetery (on land that had been Robert E. Lees home). Civil War historian James McPherson calls Meigs the unsung hero of northern victory, and Robert OHarrow Jr.s biography of the victorious general who was never on the battlefield tells the full dramatic story of this fierce, strong, honest, loyal, forward-thinking figure. An excellent biographyOHarrows thorough, masterfully crafted, and impeccable researched biography is destined to become the authoritative volume on Meigs (The Civil War Monitor).