MEIGS, MONTGOMERY CUNNINGHAM, b. Ga. 1816; received his education at the -university of Pennsylvania and the U. S. military academy, graduating at West Point, -July, 1836, and receiving the appointment of second lieut. in the artillery. In the fol lowing year lie was exchanged into the corps of engineers, in which corps he became first lieut. in 1838 and capt. in 1853. During the period between his graduating and the year 1852 he was employed in various important ennineering undertakings on the part of the war department, includino. the building of forCDelaware and the Delaware breakwater, itnprovements of the Defaware bay and river, the construction of fort Wayne, Mich., and forts Porter and Niagara, N. Y., and fort Montgomery, N. Y. In 1852 and for 8 years thereafter he was employed in superintending the Washington and Georgetown -water-works, a magnificent engineering enterprise, by means of which those cities were applied with water from the Potomac river by means of the Washington aqueduct. During this period he also superintended the erection of the capitol extension in Wash ing-ton and the post-office extension, as well as the °Teat iron dome of the capitol. In lite early part of the winter of 1860 he was dispatch6ed to forts Jefferson and Taylor, in Florida, with orders to place them in a position for defense, and in the following spring was made chief engineer of the fort Pickens relief expedition. On-May 14, 1861, he was
.appointed col. 11th infantry ; and May 15 quartermaster-gen. of the U. S. army, with the rank of brig.gen. In this important position gen. Meigs bad the direction of the supply.and equipment of the United States forces in the field during the COntinuance of the war. He was frequently obliged to rnake personal inspection of the quartermaster's .department of the various armies durin,,,, siege and field operations, this being partial larly the case at Chattanooga in 1863 and during the battles of the Wilderness in 1864. .0n July 5, 1864, he wa.s brevetted maj.gen. In Jan., 1865, he superintended the refitting of the arniy of gen. Sherman after its return from the march to the sea. In 1867 and '68 he made an inspection of the departments of the west and the Pacific coast; and in 1875 was sent to Europe on a special mission of examination of the staff depart ment of the European armies.