The Twiggs-Myers Family, Part III

Marion Twiggs, the daughter of Major General David E. Twiggs, married a young Army officer named Abraham Charles Myers, from Georgetown, South Carolina.  Myers was born on 14 May 1811, the son of Abraham Myers, a practicing attorney.  Myers was accepted into the US Military Academy at West Point in 1828 but was held back at the end of his first year due to deficiencies in his studies.  He graduated with the class of 1833.  Upon graduation, Myers was brevetted to Second Lieutenant and posted at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Myers served two tours of duty in Florida during the Seminole Indians Wars—from 1836-38, and 1841-42.  During this time, he was promoted to captain in the quartermaster department.  During his service in Florida, Myers was responsible for the construction of a key fortification and re-supply center—Fort Myers was named for Captain Myers, although I suspect that most people living there do not know this bit of history.

During the Mexican-American War, Myers served under General Zachary Taylor in the Texas campaign.  In recognition for his gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Myers was brevetted to major.  He was later transferred to Winfield Scott’s command, where he again distinguished himself in combat at Churubusco and received a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel.

From April to June 1848, Myers served as the chief quartermaster of the Army in Mexico.  After the war, and for the next thirteen years, Myers served at various posts and stations in the southern regions of the United States.  It was during this time that he married Marion, the daughter of Major General David E. Twiggs, who at the time was the Commanding General, Department of Texas.

On 28 January 1861, Myers was serving in New Orleans, Louisiana.  On this date, by virtue of the outbreak of the American Civil War, Louisiana officials demanded that Myers surrender his quartermaster and commissary stores to the Confederacy.  Myers promptly resigned his commission from the United States Army and turned his supplies over to Confederate authorities.  On 16 March 1861, Myers accepted appointment to lieutenant colonel in the quartermaster department of the Confederate States Army.  On 25 March, he assumed the duties as acting quartermaster-general until December, when he assumed the post of quartermaster-general of the Confederate States Army.  In this capacity, he was advanced to colonel on 15 February 1862.

During the first months of the war, Myers was able to purchase much-needed supplies from the open market, contracting with local manufacturers for cotton, woolen cloth, and leather goods.  He also established shops for making clothing, shoes, tents, wagons, and other equipage, and purchased livestock at market prices for as long as possible.  By the spring of 1862, however, he was forced to resort to impressment of necessary supplies. The problem was two-fold: the availability of goods and insufficient funds provided to him by the government of the Confederacy.  Added to this was the devaluation of currency, poor railway transportation.

By mid-1863, Myers had established an extensive organization of purchasing agents, local quartermasters, shops, and supply depots. It was still insufficient, and the Confederacy soon resembled a rag-tag army, particularly in clothing and footwear. The quartermaster department soon became the target of much criticism, and in spite of his personal efficiency, he was unable to overcome the laxity and carelessness of remote subordinates. There was no doubt a considerable black-market operation in the works, as well.

On 7 August 1863, President Jefferson Davis (formerly a US Senator and Secretary of War) replaced Myers with Brigadier General Alexander Lawton.  Jefferson reasoned that the change was in the interest of efficiency.  Colonel Myers and his many friends resented his removal from office.  In January 1864, the Confederate senate reinstated Myers to the post, claiming that Lawton had not been properly nominated for either the post or his promotion. President Davis then formerly nominated Lawton, and Lawton was finally approved to serve as the new quartermaster-general.  Myers, humiliated and deeply offended by Davis’ actions, refused to serve under Lawton and resigned his commission.  He lived throughout the rest of the war in Georgia, and according to records found in the Bragg papers (Western Reserve Historical Society), lived “almost in want, on the charity of friends.”  This may not be true, since Myers traveled extensively  in Europe between 1866 and 1877.  His son John was born in Wiesbaden, Germany in 1871.  Eventually, Colonel Myers made his home in Maryland and later in Washington DC, where he passed away on 20 June 1889.  Myers never reconciled with Jefferson Davis.

John Twiggs Myers (1871-1952) is quite literally the kind of man that Hollywood films are made of, with two blockbuster films surrounding his exploits as a United States Marine.  Moreover, “Handsome Jack” was the last in a long line of tremendously patriotic Americans stretching from the American Revolution to the conclusion of his own forty-years of service in 1935.  He was the great-grandson of General John Twiggs, a revolutionary war hero, the grandson of Major General David Emanuel Twiggs, a leading figure in the Mexican-American War, and the son of Colonel Abraham C. Myers, who served as the quartermaster-general of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. His uncle was Major Levi Twiggs, U. S. Marine Corps, who was killed during the Battle of Chapultepec, Mexico, and a cousin of Second Lieutenant David Decatur Twiggs, US Army, who was also killed in Mexico—a mere thirty days before the death of his father, Levi.

After resigning his commission as quartermaster-general of the Confederate Army, Abraham C. Myers traveled in Europe for about eleven years.  John Twiggs Myers was born in Wiesbaden, Germany on 29 January 1871.  Returning to the United States with his family at the age of eight years, Jack was appointed to attend the United States Naval Academy in 1892.  Two years later, he received an appointment as an assistant engineer, and six months after that he applied for, and received a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U. S. Marine Corps.  By virtue of his grandfather’s service in the Mexican-American War, he was granted Hereditary Companion of the Military Order of Foreign Wars, and later, a Veteran Companion of the same order by virtue of his own service in the Spanish-American War, Boxer Rebellion, Philippine Insurrection, and World War I.

Having completed his studies at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, Myers began his service with the line during the Spanish-American War.  Stationed with the Asiatic Fleet, Myers led a Marine Detachment that participated in the capture of Guam from its Spanish garrison.  He served successively aboard the USS Charleston, which operated off the coast of the Philippine Islands, and then with the USS Baltimore.  During the Philippine Insurrection (also known as the Philippine-American War), Myers led several amphibious assaults against Filipino rebels in 1899.  These resulted in Myers gaining a reputation for gallantry and coolness under fire. He was promoted to Captain, U. S. Marine Corps in 1899.

In May 1900, Jack was sent to China aboard the battle cruiser USS Newark and put ashore with a detachment of 48 Marines [1] and three sailors to guard the US Legation at Peking, China from rampaging “Boxers,” known to history as the “Boxer Rebellion” [2].  Captain Myers and his Marines occupied a wall defending the international legations, the most vulnerable section of the wall.  Supported by Russian and British troops, Myers led an attack that dislodged the main Boxer position along the war [3].  The battle that ensued was, by every account, up-close and personal.  Myers was wounded in the leg by a Chinese lance, but the Chinese were pushed back.  British Consul Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald reported through diplomatic channels that Myers’ attack was one of the most successful operations of the siege.  As a result of his courage in the face of overwhelming odds, Myers was brevetted to Major.  He was later awarded the Marine Corps Brevet Medal for this action.

After recovering from his wound, Myers was assigned as Provost Marshall on American-Samoa, with later service at the Marine Barracks, Bremerton, Washington.

In May 1904, Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli, a Moor bandit, kidnapped Ion Perdicaris, Ellen Varley (the wife of British telegrapher C. F. Varley), and Ellen’s son Cromwell, demanding a ransom for their safe return. It sparked an international incident because Ion Perdicaris was the son of a former US diplomat and because President Theodore Roosevelt [4] felt obliged to react militarily to the situation in North Africa.  The president dispatched a naval squadron to Tangier and, leading a detachment of Marines aboard the USS Brooklyn, Myers played a significant role in obtaining the release [5] of Ion Perdicaris and Ms. Varley.

In later assignments, Jack Myers attended the US Army War College (1912), participated in expeditions to Santo Domingo (1912), Cuba (1913), and during World War I, Myers served as the counterintelligence officer of the US Atlantic Fleet.  As he progressed through the ranks, General Myers served severally as Fleet Marine Officer in both Atlantic and Asiatic fleets, as the officer commanding several Marine Barracks at different locations, as a battalion commander with the 2^ndProvisional Marine Regiment, Commanding Officer, 1^stBattalion, 4^thMarines, Adjutant and Inspector General, Department of the Pacific, Commanding General, Marine Corps Base, San Diego, California, Commanding General, 1^stMarine Brigade, and Commanding General, Fleet Marine Forces, Pacific.  Myers retired as a Major General in 1935.  He was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant General on the retired list in 1942 in recognition of his highly decorated combat service while on active duty. General Myers lived out the balance of his years in Coconut Grove, Florida.  He passed away on 17 April 1952.

Sources:

1. A Continent Divided: The US-Mexico War, Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, University of Texas, Arlington, 2019
2. Winters, J.D. The Civil War in Louisiana, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963
3. Warner, E. J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959
4. Russell K. Brown, New Georgia Encyclopedia, History and Archeology, 29 Jan 2010: John Twiggs

Endnotes:

[1] Including a Marine private by the name of Dan Daly.

[2] The Boxer uprising was an anti-Imperialist, anti-colonial, anti-Christian uprising that took place in China between 1899-1901.  The Boxers, so called because they belonged to an organization that was known as The Righteous and Harmonious Fists.  See also: Send in the Marines; China Marines (series).

[3] This action formed the basis of the 1963 Hollywood film, “55 Days at Peking,” which starred Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, and David Niven.  The film was constructed around a novel of the same name by Noel Gerson.

[4] Whatever Theodore Roosevelt’s faults, he was a fierce nationalist and not at all inclined to accept foreign insult.  Given the history of the Barbary Pirates, he may have wanted to squelch the renewal of North African kidnappings.

[5] This was the second action involving Jack Myers that eventually became a major Hollywood film. Titled The Wind and the Lion, the film starred Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith, and John Huston—released in 1975.  While the story was restructured to fit Hollywood artistry, actor Steve Kanaly did a superb job as “Captain Jerome,” a portrayal of John Twiggs Myers