Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/658

618 performed. The best assurance of that qualification was believed to be service creditably rendered in the several departments of the United States army before resigning from it. Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel A. C. Myers, who had held many important trusts in the United States quartermaster department, was appointed quartermaster-general with the rank of colonel.&quot; In this position Colonel Myers had the duty of organizing his department ab initio and providing for all the multifarious demands to be made upon it for clothing, transportation, etc., as the troops were rapidly called into the field. To this task he faithfully and conscientiously applied himself during the period of his service, March 15, 1861, to August 10, 1863. His death occurred at Washington, June 20, 1888.

Alexander Robert Lawton, who was quartermaster-general during the latter part of the conflict, was born in St. Peter s parish, South Carolina, November 4, 1818, the grandson of an officer of the Continental army. He was graduated at the United States military academy in 1839, and promoted second-lieutenant of the First artillery. Resigning in 1841, he studied law and was graduated by Harvard university. He practiced the profession at Savannah until 1849, then becoming, until 1854, president of the Augusta and Savannah railroad company. He sat in the legislature of Georgia as a representative in 1855-6 and as a senator in 1859-60. He was the first colonel of the First volunteer Georgia regiment, brigadier-general in command of the military district of Georgia in 1861, and served in Virginia in 1862, leading his fine brigade in the battles around Richmond, and subsequently in the campaign against Pope. Placed in command of a division he was in the thick of the battle of Sharpsburg, where he was so severely wounded as to be disabled for a considerable time. President Davis sought him out especially to take charge of the department