Shoddy ... so so shoddy. And corrupt! part 3

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Shoddy ... so so shoddy. And corrupt!  part 3


After the firing on Fort Sumpter thousands of  men signed up to defend the Union.

Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to help squash the rebellion. Nobody knew, or could have known, the length and cost of a Civil War. With thousands of new soldiers needing to be clothed, fed, housed, transported and armed, the government was in the market for everything needed to wage war and support the troops.

Swooping in to take advantage of our national  crisis, con men, swindlers and bait and switch vendors sometimes bought their contracts with kick backs from the money the U.S. paid them.

A swarm of contractors, speculators, and lobbyists, “hurried to the assault on the treasury, like a cloud of locusts. They were everywhere; in the streets, in the hotels, in the offices, at the Capitol, and in the White House. They continually besieged the bureaus of administration, the doors of the Senate and House of Representatives, wherever there was a chance to gain something.”

A new quartermaster, Montgomery Meigs, turned this infuriating state of affairs around. Montgomery Cunningham Meigs (May 3, 1816 – January 2, 1892) was a career United States Army officer and civil engineer, who served as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War.

Despite his Southern birth, Meigs strongly opposed secession and remained loyal to the Union; his record as Quartermaster General was regarded as outstanding, both in effectiveness and in ethical probity, and Secretary of State William H. Seward viewed it as a key factor in the Union victory.
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