Montgomery C. Meigs

Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, Sr.
Montgomery C. Meigs
Born	(1816-05-03)May 3, 1816 Augusta, Georgia
Died	January 2, 1892(1892-01-02) (aged 75) Washington, D.C.
Buried at	Arlington National Cemetery
Allegiance	United States Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1836–1882
Rank	Brevet Major General
Commands held	Quartermaster General
Battles/wars	American Civil War
Relations	John Rodgers Meigs (son) "Monty" Meigs (son)
Other work	Smithsonian Institution regent National Academy of Sciences, member, builder of Arlington National Cemetery

Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (/ˈmɛɡz/; May 3, 1816 – January 2, 1892) was a career United States Army officer and civil engineer, who served as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War. Despite his Southern birth, Meigs strongly opposed secession and remained loyal to the Union; his record as Quartermaster General was regarded as outstanding, both in effectiveness and in ethical probity, and Secretary of State William H. Seward viewed it as a key factor in Union victory.

Meigs was one of the principal architects of Arlington National Cemetery; the choice of its location, on Robert E. Lee's family estate, Arlington House, was partly a gesture to humiliate Lee for siding with the South.

Meigs was born in Augusta, Georgia, in May 1816. He was the son of Dr. Charles Delucena Meigs and Mary Montgomery Meigs. His father was a nationally known obstetrician and professor of obstetrics at Jefferson Medical College His grandfather, Josiah Meigs, graduated from Yale University (where he was a classmate of future dictionary creator Noah Webster and American Revolutionary War general and politician Oliver Wolcott), and later was president of the University of Georgia. Montgomery Meigs' mother, Mary, was the granddaughter of a Scottish family from Brigend (with somewhat distant claims to a baronetcy) which emigrated to America in 1701.