|
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''. ==Early life== Meigs was born February 9, 1842, in Washington, D.C., to Major General Montgomery C. Meigs and Louisa Rodgers Meigs. He was the oldest of seven children. Three of his siblings—Charles Delucena (1845-1853), Vincent Trowbridge (1851-1853), and an unnamed stillborn daughter (b. 1847)—died. He and three others (Mary Montgomery, Montgomery Jr., and Louisa Rodgers) survived into adulthood. John was also the maternal grandson of United States Navy Commodore John Rodgers, a hero of the War of 1812. Meigs' father was assigned to a number of military posts while John was young, and the family moved often. After his birth, his father was assigned to Fort Wayne near modern-day Detroit, Michigan. He was largely taught at home in these formative years. He began speaking at an early age, learned the alphabet while still very young, and was reading and writing by the age of four. In 1849, the Meigs family returned to the District of Columbia, but in October 1850 they moved to Rouses Point, New York, where John's father was engaged in building Fort Montgomery. John had a violent temper and often bullied his siblings, behaviors which deeply concerned his parents. The Meigs family returned to Washington, D.C., on November 3, 1852, after Montgomery Meigs was assigned to design and finish the Washington Aqueduct (a public works project which brought large amounts of fresh water to Washington, D.C., for the first time). His parents finally enrolled him in school (public or private is not clear). But his discipline problems continued. After one particularly violent temper tantrum, his father tied John's wrists together, tied him to a chest of drawers, and left him there all afternoon without allowing him to eat lunch. When Meigs learned that his son had untied himself, he spanked him with the rope. John Rodgers Meigs was generally an excellent student in school. He liked a wide variety of subjects, excelled in science, and knew more than most children his age. In the fall of 1856, he enrolled at Columbian College in the District of Columbia as a freshman, even though he was only 14 years old. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Rodgers Meigs」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|