This week's Ghost of Arlington is John Rodgers Meigs, Quartermaster Montgomery Meigs' son, a regular Army first lieutenant and brevet major who was killed leading a scouting mission at just 22-years-old on October 3, 1864, near Swift Run Gap, Virginia. John also happens to be the first ghost featured on the podcast to be in photographs. He was in a few actually.
The above 1853 daguerreotype shows John (holding the reins of a mule) with his siblings (right to left) Vincent, Charles, and Mary in Detroit where their father assigned to one of the military forts along the US-Canadian border.
John Rodgers Meigs initially failed to receive an appointment to West Point, but when another candidate repeatedly failed the entrance exam, his father, himself a West Point graduate, personally intervened and secured an appointment for John from Secretary of War John B. Floyd. He entered West Point on September 7, 1859. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, John, like many other cadets, was granted leaves of absence to participate in what many erroneously assumed would be a brief war. After participating in the first large-scale battle of the war, First Bull Run (First Manassas), he returned to the military academy to finish his education. June 11, 1863, he graduated first in his class and was immediately commissioned a first lieutenant of engineers.
Soon after commissioning, Miegs' skill as a cartographer led to his appointment as Chief Engineer of the Shenandoah Valley for the Department of West Virginia where drew he hundreds of maps, and designed and oversaw the construction of dozens of defensive works.
After Major General Phillip Sheridan, himself a future Ghost of Arlington, took command of the Army of the Shenandoah, Meigs' in July 1864, Meigs quickly became one of the new commanding general's favorite officers. Before long, Meigs was appointed his aide-de-camp, and the two spent hours talking about the terrain soon to be fought over as part of the Valley Campaign. During the Valley Campaign, Meigs continued to scout and draw maps for his commander; he also participated in many of the battles and skirmishes of the campaign, receiving a brevet promotion of captain and later, a brevet promotion to major.
This is the last photo taken of John Rodgers Meigs, shortly before his controversial death on October 3, 1864, covered in this episode of the podcast. He was initially buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, DC. After his father established Arlington as a national cemetery, he had his son's remains moved to the new cemetery and reinterred under a marker he designed, depicting his son as he was found in the Virginia mud.
John Rodgers Meigs is buried next to the joint maker of his mother, Luisa, and his father, Montgomery in the Meigs family plot, Section 1 Grave 1-SH.
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