John Rodgers Meigs
John Rodgers Meigs (February 9, 1842 – October 3, 1864) was an officer in the
Union Army during the
American Civil War. He was the son of Brigadier General
Montgomery C. Meigs, the
Quartermaster General of the United States Army. He participated in the
First Battle of Bull Run, and later testified in the
court-martial trial of an officer involved in the retreat from the battle. He attended the
United States Military Academy, where he was an acting assistant professor of mathematics and graduated first in his class in June 1863. He was lauded by
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton for strengthening the defenses of
Baltimore,
Maryland; was an engineer and acting
aide-de-camp on the staff of Brigadier General (Volunteers) William W. Averell; was Chief Engineer of the
Shenandoah Valley for the Department of West Virginia; and was Chief Engineer of the
Middle Military Division and aide-de-camp to General
Phillip Sheridan. The circumstances under which Meigs died led to the burning of
Dayton, Virginia, in retaliation. His funeral was a public event attended by President
Abraham Lincoln, Stanton, and numerous government dignitaries. A book of Meigs' letters were published in 2006 under the title ''A Civil War Soldier of Christ and Country: The Selected Correspondence of John Rodgers Meigs, 1859-64''.
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