User:Yszhang/sandbox

Abraham Charles Myers (Georgetown, South Carolina, 14 May 1811 - Washington, D.C., 20 June 1889) was a Jewish American army officer and a graduate of United States Military Academy, class of 1833.

Abraham Charles Myers was the son of an attorney and a descendant of Moses Cohen who was the first Rabbi in Charleston, South Carolina. After his graduation from United States Military Academy where he was ranked thirty-second in his class, Myers became a career army officer in the second Seminole War before the Mexican War.

Myers married Marion Twiggs, the daughter of Major General David E. Twiggs. Their son, John Twiggs Myers, became a Lieutenant General in the US Marine Corps.

The city of Fort Myers, Florida is named after him by Myers' father-in-law, General David Emanuel Twiggs, who was the commander of Fort Brooke in Tampa. General Twiggs wished to make his daughter happy and named the city after her husband.

During the second Seminole War, there were dozens of Jewish officers serving in the U.S. Army, and Myers, coming from a prominent Jewish family, served as an assistant quartermaster. Myers was promoted to captain in 1839. He later served in the Mexican War from 1846 to 1848, becoming the chief quartermaster of the Department of Florida. He was appointed brevet lieutenant colonel for his service in the Mexican-American War. Myers resigned from the US Army in January 1861.

Abraham Charles Myers died June 20, 1889 and was buried in St. Paul's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia.

Rise to Power
During the American Civil War from 1861-1865, due to the increasing public concern on the army's illnesses that were directly related to the Commissary and Quartermaster Departments who distributed the food, clothing, and supplies, the head Commissary officer became the scapegoat of the Confederate Congress. As a result, his nomination to full colonel as well as the commissary general was revoked, and Myers was immediately appointed the Quartermaster General of the Confederate States Army by the President of the Confederate Army, Jefferson Davis, with the rank of Colonel.

Abraham C. Myers as the Quartermaster General of the Confederacy in the Civil War Years from 1861 to 1865
Myers had served in the military for almost 23 years before he was appointed to the position of being a quartermaster general. Although he was well experienced in leading troops, he had very limited experience in manufacturing businesses. When Myers had to equip one hundred regiments of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, which in total accounted for an army up to 100,000 men, he was burdened with a budget of $128 million at the time.

Myers also took up multiple other responsibilities during his service in the Confederate States Army, in which he was widely involved with nearly all of the funding spent by the Confederate government. For example, all of the contracts with the cotton factories had to be reviewed by himself, and Myers was also in charge of distributing payrolls to the entire military, controlling all rail and water transportation, and even securing the prisoners of war.

Myers had a successful career in serving as the Quartermaster General of the Confederate government as he continued to establish quartermaster bureau across the country in cities like Charleston, Montgomery, New Orleans, San Antonio, by 1861.

Myers also paid special attention to quartermasters that were located in port cities, such as the Clothing Bureau of Richmond, VA where Myers employed large numbers of both white and black laborers for manufacturing needs.

Dismissal of Myers From Quartermaster
In March 1863, some friends of Myers sought to promote him to a higher position to "Brigadier General" due to a law recently passed by the Congress that "the rank and pay of the quartermaster general 'shall be those of Brigadier General in the provisional army.'" In total seventy six members of the congress altogether wrote a letter to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate during the Civil war, to recommend that Myers be promoted to general. However, Davis instead used the law to dismiss Myers from office and replaced him with someone else. The reason for this action was not clearly recorded, but according to the people in Richmond, Virginia it was because Myers's wife thought herself superior to President's wife because of Mrs. Davis's "dark complexion."