To The Memory Of Patriots

The Henry Hill Monument built by the 5^th Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery on the Manassas battlefield, was dedicated June 11^th 1865.

Just eight weeks after Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S Grant, Lieutenant James M McCallum of the 16^th Massachusetts Battery received orders to oversee the building of a monument.  He oversaw soldiers from the 5^th Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery in the building of two monuments on the Bull Run battlefield.   The monument located on Henry Hill would be twenty feet tall, topped with a two hundred pound shell.  There are pedestals on each corner which are also topped with shells.  It is built from local sandstone, and took the men just four days to construct the monument.

Union General Samuel P Heintzelman, Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs and Major General Orlando B Wilcox attended the dedication of the monument held on June 11^th 1865.  There were speeches given by chaplains from Illinois and Kentucky, followed by a firing of artillery located on Henry Hill.  The inscription on the monument reads, “To the memory of the patriots who fell at Bull Run, July 21st, 1861.”

His Death Caused The Burning Of A Town

Union Major John Rodgers Meigs was killed October 3^rd 1864 under a cloud of controversy which led to the burning of a town in Virginia as retaliation.

John Rodgers Meigs was born February 9^th 1841 the son of Major General Montgomery C and Louisa (Rodgers) Meigs.  He received an appointment to the United State Military Academy at West Point in 1859.  He took a short leave from the school following the First Battle of Bull Run to serve as aide-de-camp to Union General Philip Henry Sheridan.  Meigs returned to West Point graduating at the top of the class of 1863.

Following the Battle of Gettysburg, Meigs became a staff officer for Brigadier General Benjamin Franklin Kelly in West Virginia.  He saw action at the Battle of New Market, and was with Sheridan during the actions in the Shenandoah Valley.  Meigs received a brevet to Captain and then to Major for action in the Third Battle of Winchester and the Battle of Fisher’s Hill.

On the rainy night of October 3^rd 1864 Meigs and two other Union soldiers were traveling to Union headquarters in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  They came onto three Confederate cavalrymen riding on the same road.  Both parties demanded the surrender of the other.  There was an exchange of gunfire during which Meigs was killed, one of the men riding with him was taken prisoner, and the third man escaped.  The man who escaped told Sheridan that Meigs was killed without the chance to defend himself.  Thinking Meigs had been murdered; Sheridan ordered the town of Dayton, Virginia to be burned to the ground as retaliation.

Meigs’ father had him buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, DC, but would latter have him re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

A Tax Sale And A Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery was officially created as a military cemetery June 15th 1864.


Arlington National Cemetery was established on the grounds of Arlington House. Arlington House was an estate owned by Confederate General Robert E Lee’s wife Mary Anna [Custis] Lee, the grand-daughter of Martha Washington. The Custis family bought the land where the cemetery is located in 1802 and began building Arlington House.

The United States government purchased Arlington House and its two hundred acres at a tax sale for $26,800 in 1864. Mrs. Lee sent an agent to pay the $92.07 property taxes that were due, but the government refused to take the payment which was not made in person. The United States Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Washington DC was rapidly filling with military burials, so United States Quartermaster General Montgomery C Meigs wrote of Arlington that the “grounds about the mansion are admirably adapted to such a use." United State Secretary of War Edwin M Stanton officially had the land set aside as a military cemetery June 15th 1864. Burials were begun on the ground of Arlington House before the ink had time to dry.

Custis Lee the son of Robert E Lee sued the United State for ownership of Arlington House in 1874, claiming the estate was held in trust for his mother. The United States Supreme Court ruled in Lee’s favor and Congress returned the land to him. The next year, 1875 Lee sold the property back to the government for $150,000 at a ceremony with Robert Todd Lincoln. President Herbert Hoover held the first official National Memorial Day May 30th 1929 in Arlington National Cemetery.

This is a must read web site for information about the Arlington National Cemetery

The Quartermaster

Career United States Brigadier General Robert Allen was born March 15th 1811.

Robert Allen was born in West Point, Columbiana, Ohio March 15th 1811. After a public education, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1836. Allen was assigned to garrison duty in the 2nd United States Artillery. He saw his first combat at the Battle of Cerro Gordo during the Mexican  American War. Allen received a brevet to Major for his actions during this battle. Following the war he transferred to the Quartermaster’s Corps, and was asigned to be the chief quartermaster for the Department of the Pacific.

Allen was promoted to Colonel at the beginning of the Civil War and made the chief quartermaster of the Department of the Missouri. His abilities soon saw him promoted to chief quartermaster of the entire Mississippi Valley. Allen made his headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky. He secured railcars from Northern railroads, ferried them across the Ohio River for use in transporting food and supplies to the Union army, using railways formerly held by the Confederates. His grasp of logistics ensured the Union Army was better fed and equipped then the Confederate Army. He was in charge of the supplies that went to General Ulysses Grant at Vicksburg, and Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Atlanta campaign. Allen was promoted the Brigadier General and ranked only under Quartermaster General Montgomery C Meigs. He received a brevet to Major General in March 1865.

Allen stayed in the Untied State Army following the end of the war. He retired in 1878. Allen was traveling in Europe when he died August 5th 1886. He is buried in the Chene - Bougeries Cemetery in Geneva, Switzerland.