Meigs Lodges

Designed from General Montgomery Meigs' Prototype, 1860's - 1900's:

National Cemetery superintendent's lodges were constructed at numerous Civil War national cemeteries from a prototypical plan. They were built in different, local materials and were all "L" shaped with a porch, three main rooms on each level and usually a mansard roof. The design and construction oversight was done by Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster General of the Army from 1861-62, and known for his roles in the design and construction of the Washington Aqueduct System, Cabin John Aqueduct Bridge, enlargement of the U.S. Capitol Building dome, and the Pension Building, all in or around Washington, D.C.

• Lodge Design
• Cemeteries Containing Original Meigs Lodges
• Cemeteries Originally Having Meigs Lodges - Now Demolished
• Known Existing Meigs Lodges Owned by Others
• Background
• Montgomery C. Meigs
• Specifications for Construction of Lodge (Old Style)

Prototype Lodge Design - Elevation and Floor Plans with Meigs's Signature

Cemeteries Containing Original Meigs Lodges:

* Not Considered a Civil War Cemetery

** These lodges were two-story and of a much more simple Victorian design than the earlier one and one-half story Second Empire desing used by General Meigs as the original standard plan at the Civil War national cemeteries.

Cemeteries Originally Having Meigs Lodges - Now Demolished

* Unverified whether these were rebuilt, or just built with non-Miegs design later than originally planned in 1871 Quartermaster General's report.

Known Existing Meigs Lodges Owned by Others:

U.S. Soldiers' Home, District of Columbia

U.S. Corp of Engineers, MacArthur Blvd. Reservoir, District of Columbia

U.S. Army, Walter Reed Hospital, District of Columbia

U.S. National Park Service, Great Falls National Park, Potomac, Maryland

U.S. National Park Service, Poplar Grove National Cemetery, Petersburg National Battlefield, Petersburg, Virginia

Fort Donelson, Dover, Tennessee

Chalmette, Louisiana

Shiloh, Tennessee

Background:

By an Act to Establish and to Protect National Cemeteries, approved February 22, 1867, the Secretary of War was directed to have every national cemetery enclosed with a good and substantial stone or iron fence, to cause each grave to be marked with a small headstone or block, to appoint superintendents, and to provide adequate housing facilities for the superintendents. This led to a construction effort that resulted in lodges, built of various materials (brick, frame, ashlar, and coursed stone) from a prototypical design by Meigs, being constructed in most national cemeteries. The Meigs lodges were of late Victorian Second Empire design with mansard roof, a story and a half over a basement in an inverted L-shape. The first floor contained the office and two other rooms. Sleeping quarters were located on the upper floor. Kitchens were originally in separate structures, but kitchen additions have been added over the years. Most roofs were mansard and many had decorative fish scale slate and hexagonal slate with patterns formed by variations in color. Patterns included the "U.S." initials. Building materials were chosen partly by what was locally available.

According to a Quartermaster General's report dated September 1871, permanent stone or brick lodges had been constructed, prior to the last fiscal year, in the following national cemeteries included in this nomination:

• Barrancas, Florida
• Beaufort, South Carolina
• Camp Butler, Illinois
• Florence, South Carolina
• Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
• Fort Smith, Arkansas
• Jefferson Barracks, Missouri
• Keokuk, Iowa
• Little Rock, Arkansas
• Marietta, Georgia
• Mound City, Illinois
• Natchez, Mississippi
• Richmond, Virginia
• Salisbury, North Carolina
• San Antonio, Texas

The report also stated that during the fiscal year, permanent stone or brick lodges were erected or started at the following national cemeteries covered in this nomination:

• Alexandria, Virginia
• Annapolis, Maryland (brick)
• City Point, Virginia
• Cold Harbor, Virginia
• Cypress Hills, New York (brick)
• Fort Harrison, Virginia
• Hampton, Virginia
• New Albany, Indiana (brick)
• New Bern, North Carolina
• Staunton, Virginia
• Wilmington, North Carolina
• Winchester, Virginia

According to the same report, lodges were still needed in the following cemeteries, some of which were planned to be constructed during that fiscal year:

• Alexandria, Louisiana
• Baton Rouge, Louisiana
• Camp Nelson, Kentucky
• Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Corinth, Mississippi
• Culpeper, Virginia
• Danville, Virginia
• Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Fort Gibson, Oklahoma
• Fort Scott, Kansas
• Glendale, Virginia
• Grafton, West Virginia
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Knoxville, Tennessee
• Lebanon, Kentucky
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Mill Springs, Kentucky
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Port Hudson, Louisiana
• Raleigh, North Carolina
• Seven Pines, Virginia
• Springfield, Missouri

Subsequent to that report, lodges were constructed at:

• Beverly, New Jersey (1879)
• Loudon Park, Maryland (1880)
• Mobile, Alabama (1881)
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (date unknown)

The remaining six cemeteries have no lodge.

At three national cemeteries (Loudon Park, Maryland; Cypress Hills, New York; and Mound City, Illinois, the lodges, which were designed by General Meigs, were two-story structures of a much more simple Victorian design than the earlier one-and-one-half-story Second Empire design used by Quartermaster General Meigs as the original standard plan at the Civil War national cemeteries. The simple floor plans of the one-and-one-half-story lodge provided an office, living room, and kitchen on the first floor and three bedrooms on the upper story.

Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster General

On May 15, 1861, Montgomery C. Meigs was made Quartermaster General of the United States Army with the rank of brigadier general. He had attended the University of Pennsylvania before entering West Point on July 1, 1832. Graduating fifth in his class, he served for a year in the artillery before transferring to the engineers on July 1, 1837. He served as an assistant in surveying stretches of the Mississippi River with an eye to the improvement of navigation and was assigned to military engineering duties on the fortifications below Philadelphia. He joined in the building of Fort Delaware and participated in improvement of the harbors of the Delaware and completion of the Delaware Breakwater, a measure of safety from adverse tides to mariners who entered the treacherous mouth of Delaware Bay. For two years, Meigs served on the Board of Engineers for Atlantic Coast Defenses, serving as a Washington representative of the Delaware River projects. He then became superintending engineer of the building of Fort Delaware in May 1841 and, later that year, supervised the construction of Fort Wayne on the Detroit River. Subsequent assignments included assistant to the Chief Engineer in Washington and engineer in charge of construction at Fort Montgomery in Rouses Point, New York. In 1852, while in the Philadelphia-New Jersey area, in charge of three public works projects, Meigs was appointed to take charge of a project to survey possible sources of a public water supply for the City of Washington, D.C. Meigs recommended construction of an aqueduct all the way from Great Falls. This, known as the Washington Aqueduct, was agreed to by the Secretary of War. In 1852, Meigs was later designated as superintendent of the Washington Aqueduct, of which the Cabin John Bridge would be the great monumental work, the largest masonry single-arch bridge in the world. He was also placed in charge of the extension of the U.S. Capitol and the dome, as well as the wings of the Post Office. The U.S. Capitol was much too small, had no heat, baffling acoustics, and bad ventilation. The House chamber was opened in December 1857, and the Senate chamber was opened in 1859.

In September 1860, Meigs was sent to the Dry Tortugas to assume charge of the construction at Fort Jefferson. He found what he described as a dangerous temper on his trip to the South and a strong hostility toward the Union. He then returned to public works and was subsequently named Quartermaster General of the Army.

He served as head of the department, providing the armies in the field with all kinds of supplies, except those with which they ate or fought. His responsibilities also included transportation by railroad, wagon, and ship of both the army and its supplies, including army clothing, camp and garrison equipage, cavalry and artillery horses, fuel, forage, straw, material for bedding, and stationery. His department also oversaw the operations of the Military Telegraph Corps.

The army administration was divided into seven bureaus, one of which was the Quartermaster General. The others were the Adjutant General, Commissary General, Surgeon General, Paymaster General, Chief Engineer, and Chief of Ordnance. All reported directly to the Secretary of War.

It was up to Quartermaster General Meigs to ensure the maintenance of stocks in the general depots of the Quartermaster's Department. The depot quartermasters did most of the direct contracting, but they did so in accordance with estimates of needs prepared by the Quartermaster General. It was up to Meigs to anticipate the clothing requirements of the United States Army as a whole, and to fill them. He had to assemble adequate reserves of horses, provide the armies with tents, and construct barracks and hospitals when such were needed. He had to assemble ships for ocean transport and steamers for the rivers, and he assisted in securing railroad transportation as well as collecting wagons for the use of the armies beyond the railheads. His office was a coordinating center for the activities of quartermasters from the Rio Grande to the Chesapeake. He had to submit annually to Congress an estimate of departmental expenses for the coming fiscal year. He had to maintain honesty in the supply system through a careful auditing of all quartermasters' accounts. There were also six inspectors under his supervision.

It was also the duty of the Quartermaster's Department to provide for interments of soldiers who died in battle. Burial grounds had been opened at troop concentration points where mortalities in general hospitals first posed the problem of military burial, and cemeteries were established in the combat zones as memorials to those Union soldiers who gave their lives in battle. The establishment of procedures of making and preserving records of deceased soldiers and of their places of burial was a problem that faced the War Department early in the conflict. War Department General Order No. 55 dated September 11, 1861, delegated to Commanding Officers of military corps and departments the responsibility for the burial of officers and soldiers who died within their jurisdictions. It also directed that in performance of this duty, they would properly execute the regulations and forms provided by the Quartermaster General for this purpose, in order to preserve accurate and permanent records of deceased soldiers and their place of burial. The Quartermaster General was also directed to provide means for a registered headboard to be placed at the head of each soldier's grave.

Specifications for Superintendents' Stone Lodges:

These are the original specifications for construction of the lodges:

The building to be of good rubble masonry laid in mortar, to conform in every respect to dimensions shown on plans. The mortar used to contain one-third (1/3) as much cement as lime; the whole mixed with a due proportion of sharp sand, to make good work.

Foundation of exterior walls to be capped with a belt-course of cut stone six (6) inches thick, to project five (5) inches from face of wall, and to have four (4) inches chamfer.

Outside door and window-sills of first story, together with area steps under rear porch, to be of cut stone, either granite or sandstone; all outside sills to have at least two (2) inches wash.

CELLAR.

Cellar under the entire building to be six (6) feet four (4) inches in the clear. The walls to commence six (6) inches below the floor, and to be twenty-eight (28) inches thick to the level of the first-story floor, three (3) feet above the ground. Flooring of cellar to be concreted with gravel and cement six (6) inches thick; if gravel cannot be obtained, fine broken stones to be used instead. Before laying this flooring, the cellar to be thoroughly under-drained with three (3) inch pipe.

Cellar partition walls to have communicating doors. An outside door, leading into area under rear porch, to be provided for.

The ground around the entire building, after its completion, to be so graded that the water will flow from it in all directions.

FACINGS.

The facing to project three (3) inches, and the window and door-facings two (2) inches, from the line of the wall.

CHIMNEYS.

The fire-places and chimneys, each with two flues, properly pargetted, scraped, and with thimbles with flanges and plates for stove-pipes, to be as shown on drawing; to commence six (6) inches below cellar floor, to be carried above the roof and capped. The topping out to be of good red brick laid in white mortar. Also provide for a flue in cellar chimney-stack.

FIRE-PLACES.

Fire-places to be cased, and hearths laid with good red brick, and fitted with suitable grates.

BRICK-WORK.

The brick-work will be of first-quality hard-burned brick, laid in first-quality lime and sharp said mortar.

PLASTERING.

All partitions, walls, and ceilings to be plastered with two (2) coats of best-quality lime, sharp sand and hair mortar, and hard finished. The wood and plaster partitions in second story to be plastered three-fourths (3/4) of an inch thick on both sides of the wood-work in such a manner as to form a solid partition three (3) inches thick.

TIMBER.

Joists for first floor to be three (3) by ten (10) inches; for second floor to be three (3) by nine (9) inches; all to be placed sixteen (16) inches between centers. Ceiling joists to be three (3) by five (5) inches, placed at sixteen (16) inches between centers.

RAFTERS.

The rafters for lower slope of roof to be three (3) by four (4) inches, placed at sixteen (16) inches between centers, framed on floor-joists of second story, and spiked to top plate. Top plate three (3) by four (4) inches, framed on upright studding three (3) by four (4) inches, which is framed on floor-joists of second story. Rafters for upper slope, or flat roof, to be three (3) by five (5) inches, placed at thirty-two (32) inches between centers, spiked to ceiling-joists, and notched on top plate. Strips of two (2) inch plank to be nailed on rafters for curve of roof and for cornice.

PARTITIONS.

All partitions in second story to be made of slats one and one-fourth (1 1/4) by three fourths (3/4) inches, extending from ceiling to floor, set nearly upright, but oblique enough to form a lattice-work with very elongated holes or openings. These slats to be well nailed together, one set on the outside and the other flush, with horizontal strips, three-fourths (3/4) of an inch thick, previously nailed to ceiling and flooring. At the corners, strips three-fourths (3/4) by one and one-fourth (1 1/4) inches thick must be placed to receive the ends of slats in and from the corners. Door-frames to be set in partitions, with suitable casings.

WINDOWS.

In lower story, six (6) square-headed windows with box frames and double sash one and three-fourths (1 3/4) inches thick; lower sash with six (6) lights of ten (10) by sixteen (16) inch glass, with proper pulleys and weights; upper sash with six (6) lights of glass, as shown by drawing. Sash-locks to be furnished. In upper story, eight (8) square-headed windows with box frames, and double sash one and three-fourths (1 3/4) inches thick, hung with proper pulleys and weights, and to be four (4) inches wider and eight (8) inches higher than as shown on drawing.

Five (5) cellar windows, to be as shown on drawing, hinged and fitted with proper iron gratings.

Plate-glass lights to be placed in scuttle.

All windows to have outside venetian blinds of one and one-half (1 1/2) inches hard pine, to open in the center, with proper fastenings.

ROOF AND CORNICES.

The roof will be planked with one (1) inch boards with close joints; the lower slope of roof of the building to be well covered with first-quality Buckingham or Susquehanna slate, trimmed to form diamond-shaped laps, eight (8) inches to the weather, and well-nailed. Valleys to be of tin, twelve (12) inches wide, the sheets well soldered to each other and in the gutters. Cornices to be as shown on elevation; that of the lower slope of roof to be lined with heavy tin sixteen (16) inches wide, well soldered, to form gutters. Four tin pipes, each three (3) inches in diameter, to carry water from the roof; vitrified pipe to conduct roof-drainage to cistern.

The upper slope of roof, tops of dormer windows, front and rear porch roofs to be of first-quality one-cross tin, well-soldered, and painted three (3) coats of mineral paint in oil.

CLOSETS.

Closets to be provided for, with proper shelving, fixtures etc., wherever shown on drawing.

FLOORS.

All floors to be of best-quality seasoned hard pine, tongued and grooved, one (1) inch thick, well nailed, and laid in courses, to be free from knots or defects, mill-worked and smooth. All floors to be deafened by at least four (4) inches of mortar.

STAIRS.

As shown on plan. The steps one and one-fourth (1 1/4) inches, and risers one (1) inch thick, all of first-quality seasoned hard pine, mill-worked, with eight (8) inches rise and nine (9) inches tread, properly braced and timbered. Ladder from second story to scuttle in roof at head of stairs, and stairway with proper treads and risers leading from kitchen to cellar.

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