num_pages: 320
description: The lively story of the Civil Wars most unlikelyand most uncelebratedgenius.  The Wall Street JournalGeneral Montgomery C. Meigs who built the Union Army was judged by Lincoln Seward and Stanton to be the indispensable architect of the Union victory. Civil War historian James McPherson calls Meigs the unsung hero of northern 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. 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).Robert OHarrow Jr. brings Meigs alive in the commanding and intensely personal Quartermaster . We get to know this major military figure that Lincoln and his Cabinet and Generals called the key to victory and learn how he fed clothed and armed the Union Army using his ingenuity and devotion. OHarrow tells the full dramatic story of this fierce strong honest loyal forward-thinking major American figure.
language: English
title: The Quartermaster: Montgomery C. Meigs, Lincoln's General, Master Builder of the Union Army
publisher: Simon & Schuster