Episode 6: Montgomery C. Meigs, Part 2 - Master Builder of the Union Army

Originally met with mixed reviews, Meigs' Pension Building, later home to the US General Accounting Office, and today the National Building Museum, this project broke ground on July 1, 1881, and was completed seven years later. The exterior was modeled closely on the monumentally scaled Palazzo Farnese, in Rome, completed to Michelangelo's specifications in 1589. The building's interior, with open, arcaded galleries surrounding a central hall, mirrored the early 16th century Palazzo della Cancelleria. Though still under construction, the first major event held in the building was Grover Cleveland's 1885 Inaugural Ball.

The above four pictures are from various stages of the building's construction in the 1880s

A view of the Grand Gallery in 1918

Clerks working in the Grand Gallery in the 1930s

Officers in the Grand Gallery circa 1960, when the building was considered for demolition

The Grand Gallery at a 2010 Award Ceremony

The Grand Gallery as it appears today

It remains one of the better locations for large events and rallies in Washington, DC

A modern exterior view of "Meigs's Big Red Barn" with the Capitol Dome, another Meigs project, in the background

Closeups of the 26-panel frieze, a monument to Civil War veterans, around the building's exterior

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, opened in 1991, is located behind the museum today

Another of Meigs's major post-Civil War projects included the second building in the Smithsonian Institution complex. It opened in 1881 as the first US National Museum and is today called the Arts and Industry Building.

Meigs's Civil War headquarters is now the Renwick Art Gallery, part of the Smithsonian's Museum of American Art and, according to Google Maps, is less than a quarter of a mile from the White House

Montgomery and Luisa Meigs were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 1, Grave 1-EH

Episode 5: Montgomery C. Meigs, Part 2 - Father of Arlington National Cemetery

The above two images of General Montgomery Meigs, taken at the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 and the end of the war in 1865, show how much his important and stressful position aged him.

1793 - An amateur architect from the British West Indies, Dr. William Thornton was awarded $500 and a city lot for his design of the Capitol. George Washington presided over the cornerstone ceremony in September of the same year. Today, Dr. Thornton is honored as the first architect of the Capitol.

Though still under construction, Congress began meeting in the Capitol in 1800.

The original Capitol Building in Washington, DC was put to the torch by the British on August 24, 1814. Thanks to the use of fire-proof building materials, such as sheet iron, marble, sandstone, zinc, and copper, (and heavy rains that fell that evening) the exterior structure survived and many of the interior spaces remained intact. 

British Burn the Capitol, 1814 by Allyn Cox (1974) is located in the House Wing corridor on the Capitol's first floor

This 1814 painting shows some exterior fire damage but most of the exterior of the Capitol still standing

1815-1819 - the so-called Brick Capitol served as a temporary meeting place while the Capitol Building was repaired

In 1824, the first capital dome was designed

In 1846, the earliest known photograph of the Capitol and its original dome was taken

In 1854, after an expansion project increased the size of the Capitol without increasing the size of the dome, and a new dome concept was imagined

1857 - More than a year into the construction of the new dome

1861 - Lincoln was inaugurated in front of the partially completed dome. Construction on the dome continued throughout the Civil War, though with a greatly reduced workforce.

1863 - The 19 ½ foot tall, 15,000-pound Statue of Freedom was installed on top of the dome in 1863

1866 - The Apotheosis of Washington fresco was finished on the dome's interior

In 2016, the Architect of the Capitol completed the most complete restoration of the dome in its 150-year history. 

In addition to overseeing much of the mid-19th century Capitol dome project, General Meigs built the Washington Aqueduct, which brought clean water into Washington, DC. Part of the system included the Cabin John Bridge, now called the Union Arch Bridge. Construction of the bridge lasted from 1857-1864, and at 220 feet, it was the longest single-arch bridge in the world until 1903.

The Union Arch Bridge under construction (top left - 1859, top right - 1861, bottom left - 1863, bottom right - 1869

I have not personally seen or found online pictures of the copper plaques Meigs installed below the waterline of the aqueduct, but there are visible bridge markers still in place today and read: Washington Aqueduct, Chief Engineer, Capt. Montgomery Meigs, US Corps of Engineers..."

Episode 4: Custis Lee Gives Up Arlington

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.

Episode 3: Arlington Returns to the Lees

The first monument to unknown war dead at Arlington was designed by Major General Montgomery Meigs himself and dedicated in September 1866. It contains the mixed remains of 2,111 soldiers gathered from the fields of Bull Run (Manassas, VA) and the route to the Rappahannock River. Nearly 1,800 of the remains came from Manassas alone, where to major engagements were fought during the Civil War. Though intended to be a monument to Union soldiers, given the nature of battlefield interments during the Civil War, it is likely the mass grave contains remains of Confederate soldiers as well. The monument is in Section 26, near the Lee Mansion and Mrs. Lee's famous rose garden.

The side of the memorial features this inscription:

BENEATH THIS STONE

REPOSE THE BONES OF TWO THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN UNKNOWN

SOLDIERS

GATHERED AFTER THE WAR

FORM THE FIELDS OF BULL RUN, AND THE ROUTE TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK

THEIR REMAINS COULD NOT BE IDENTIFIED. BUT THEIR NAMES AND DEATHS ARE

RECORDED IN THE ARCHIVES OF THEIR COUNTRY, AND ITS GRATEFUL CITIZENS

HONOR THEM AS OF THEIR NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS. MAY THEY REST IN PEACE.

SEPTEMBER. A. D. 1866

Aside from the large monuments for unknown casualties, smaller headstones can be found throughout the cemetery over remains whose identities are "known only to God," including this single Civil War burials in Section 27.

 These five remains, also from the Civil War, are in Section 13 Grave 5.

This contemporary marker in Section 1 Grave 14 marks unknowns who fell in battle during the War of 1812, which predates Arlington as a national cemetery by some 50 years.

Many of the Freedmen interred on the property are also located in section 27, the first part of the property designated for burials. They hold know military rank, but their headstones are engraved with a title that had long been withheld from them and other former slaves: citizen.

Danella Warris, Citizen. Section 27 Grave 1665

Betsy Hunter, Citizen. Section 27 Grave 1957

Juley Fitzure, Citizen. Section 27 Grave 2279

Stephen Young, Citizen. Section 17 Grave 1949

Frank Docket, Citizen. Section 22 Grave 2216

Ben Johnson, Citizen. Section 27 Grave 3361

Even the Citizens of Section 27 have their share of unknowns

If you would like to read more about the African-American burials in Section 27, I recently came across a lecture from  2011 as part of the 38th Annual DC Historical Studies Conference. Presented by Timothy Dennee, the lecture was titled "A District of Columbia Freedman's Cemetery in Virginia? Arlington's Section 27". A portion of the lecture can be read here.

Episode 2: The First Burials at Arlington National Cemetery - An Act of Necessity and Vengeance

I have not been able to find a photograph of any of the following soldiers comprising the historic firsts highlighted in this episode, but each has been immortalized in chiseled granite; four in Section 27 and one in Section 26. As a side note, if you have never visited Arlington National Cemetery, some sections are very large and some are quite small, and it is not uncommon for sections in the older parts of the cemetery to not follow one another numerically. For example, Section 26 and Section 27 are some distance from one another. 

While I tend to use photographs that I have personally taken on this site, I am going to borrow a photo posted to the Arlington National Cemetery official Facebook page on May 14, 2020. It is a great four-in-one image used to eulogize these four firsts: 

"Private William Henry Christman mustered into the US Army on March 25, 1864. His older brother had dies in service in 1862. Still, the 20-year-old farmer enlisted and joined the 67th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Christman did not serve long: like so many others, he soon fell sick and was admitted to Lincoln Hospital in Washington, DC. He succumbed to his illness, rubella, on May 11, 1864. Christman became the first soldier buried at Arlington National Cemetery on May 13, 1864.

PVT Christman's Enlistment Papers

Private William H. McKinney joined the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry on March 16, 1864. The young trooper soon fell ill and was sent to a hospital in Washington, DC where he died on May 12, 1864. The next day, the Army interred him at Arlington National Cemetery. McKinney was the [first soldier interred at the cemetery with his family present].

Private William Blatt [joined] the 49th Pennsylvania [Volunteer] Infantry [Regiment]... in 1861. During General Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign, he was seriously wounded on May 10, 1864 and dies three days later in a Washington, DC hospital. On May 14, 1864 the Army buried him at Arlington. Blatt became the third soldier and first combat casualty interred in these hallowed grounds.

Private William Reeves was inducted into the 76th New York [Volunteer] Infantry [Regiment] on August 25, 1863. Only 19 years old, the young man from Canandaigua, NY soon found himself in the thick of action during the Overland Campaign. On May 5, 1864, he received a serious gunshot wound. Despite treatment at Stanton Hospital in Washington, DC, he succumbed to his wounds just over a week later. Reeves became the fourth soldier interred at Arlington, and the first draftee."

Today, these four firsts are all located in Section 27:

PVT Christman: Site 19

PVT McKinney: Site 98

PVT Reeves: Site 99

PVT Blatt: Site 18 

According to an Arlington Historical Society's History of the Rose Garden, Captain Albert H. Packard left his wife and two children on at age 30 on August 25, 1862 to enlist in as a private in the 19th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment. By October 31st he had been promoted to corporal and was color bearer of Company G. In 1863, Packard fought in the battle of Gettysburg, where his regiment sustained 45 percent casualties. in 1864, Packard returned to Maine to recruit solders for a new regiment and was made Captain of Company I in the new 31st Maine Infantry. On May 6, 1864, during the second day of the Battle of the Wilderness, CPT Packard received a gunshot wound to the head. He managed to survive his wound for 10 days and died on May 16, 1864.

There are obviously some discrepancies between this March 1990 Arlington Historical Society publication and what we see on CAPT Packard's headstone. He was apparently commanding Company I at the time of his death and had been in Company G when he was in the 19th Maine. His headstone says he died on May 15th and our written account says May 16th. These two question marks aside, the final words CPT Packard from the Arlington Historical Society seem to ring true: "Packard was a man who carried the flag in battle, a man who recruited others to join the Union cause for their final push to victory, a man who commanded until receiving a mortal wound on a Virginia battlefield. Captain Albert H. Packard is worthy of being the first officer buried at Arlington National Cemetery."

Episode 1: The Need for a National Cemetery

While we didn't talk about their burials - it was still Arlington Plantation and not yet Arlington National Cemetery when they passed away - both of Mary Custis Lee's parents were buried on the grounds before the Civil War. George Washington Parke Custis and Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis were laid to rest under a large tree in what is today Section 13. Theirs are some of the only headstones behind a fence on the cemetery grounds today.

George Washington Park Custis and Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis are buried in Section 13, Spaces 6513 and 6512, respectively.

George Washington Park Custis build the Arlington Mansion as a memorial/museum dedicated to the memory of his step-grandfather and adoptive father, George Washington, and decorated the interior with artifacts from the Mount Vernon Estate, where he grew up.

At the time of his passing, George's will stipulated that Arlington Plantation should pass to his daughter Mary Custis Lee and at the time of her passing the plantation was to be inherited by Mary's oldest son, Custis.

After the US Government sized Arlington at the beginning of the Civil War, Mary Lee fought hard to have the property restored to her.

She only returned to her former home once after the war, just a few months before her death. At that time she said the property had changed so much that she could no longer recognize it as the place she grew up. George and Mary's daughter was buried beside her late husband, Robert E. Lee on the campus of George Washington University, nearly 200 miles to the southwest in Lexington, VA.