Arthur Ducat

Arthur Charles Ducat, Sr. (February 24, 1830 – January 29, 1896) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War An immigrant from Ireland, he served as the Inspector General of two major Federal armies in the Western Theater and was breveted as a brigadier general. Following the war, he was a leading executive in the insurance industry in Illinois and a world reknown specialist and author in fire prevention and protection who wrote one of the standard reference works on the topic.

Early life and career

Arthur Ducat was born in Dublin, Ireland, on February 24, 1830. His father, Mungo Moray Ducat, traced his lineage from an ancient highland family, renowned in the annals of Scotland. He was a native of Cupar Angus, but in early life removed to New Lawn, County Dublin, Ireland, where he also possessed large estates. His wife, Dorcas Julia Atkinson, was born in County Armagh, Ireland, and died in Downer's Grove, Illinois, in November 1889, aged eighty-six years. Her father was an Englishman of Cambridgeshire.

Ducat was educated at private schools in his native city, and at the age of nineteen came to Chicago, Illinois, with the intention of becoming a civil engineer. He pursued that profession for some years on important railroad lines and other public works. He later became the Secretary and General Surveyor of the Board of Underwriters of Chicago, which position he accepted and occupied until the opening of the Civil War. He took a keen interest in the affairs of the city and organized, drilled and disciplined the Citizens' Fire Brigade, a semi-military and armed body of citizen militia. Their duties were to attend fires and save and guard property and life. This action also had a deeper meaning, for Ducat had resolved to abolish the old "volunteer" fire department and introduce a new one in its place on a paid and disciplined basis, employing steam fire-engines. He was obliged to protect the first engines brought to Chicago from the demonstrations and attacks of mobs, incited by the bad element of the volunteer department, which he did by the aid of his fire brigade. He wrote the ordinances establishing and substituting steam engines for the old hand machines, and enlisted the vote of the Common Council to adopt it. [http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/acducatsr.htm Arlington National Cemetery webpage for Ducat] Retrieved 2008-09-17]

Civil War service

At the beginning of the war, Ducat raised and offered—first to the State of Illinois and then to the National Government—a corps of 300 engineers, sappers and miners. Many of these men were professionals who had seen service and understood the details of field and permanent fortifications, and works connected therewith, the rapid construction of bridges, roads, etc. Ducat was disappointed by the subssequent rejection of what he foresaw would be a much needed service.

Notwithstanding this refusal, he immediately enlisted as a private in April 1861 in the 12th Illinois Infantry. On May 2, he was appointed as a second lieutenant and then became the adjutant of that regiment. The 12th Illinois was among the first Union units that seized the important strategic point of Cairo, Illinois, and supported General Nathaniel Lyon in taking possession of the St. Louis Arsenal for the Federal government. After the three-months enlistment expired, Ducat took a commission as the captain of Company A in the three-years regiment with the same ordinal. The reorganized 12th Illinois was part of the first Union brigade to occupy neutral Kentucky, taking possession of Paducah in August 1861. There, Ducat was promoted to become the major of his regiment.

In April 1862, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel following the attack on Fort Donelson in Tennessee. In August of that year, he was appointed to the command of the guards, pickets and outposts for the Army of the Tennessee. When Maj. Gen. Edward Ord was appointed to the command, Ducat was ordered to join his staff, and later when Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans relieved General Ord, Ducat was attached to his staff. At the Battle of Corinth and the subsequent pursuit of the enemy, Ducat served as acting Chief of Staff and Inspector General. [ [http://www.geocities.com/craigcross/arthurducat.htm "A Memoir of Arthur Charles Ducat 1830 - 1896"] Retrieved 2008-09-17]

Subsequently he was directed by Rosecrans to conduct a flag of truce to the enemy at Holly Springs, Mississippi, a distance of more than 75 miles through a countryside infested with a superior force of guerrillas and enemy cavalry. After this successful mission, he was afterward detailed to arrange with Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside the details for the Knoxville Campaign. When Rosecrans subsequently took command of the forces known as the Army of the Ohio (renamed as the Army of the Cumberland), Ducat was ordered to accompany General Rosecrans and named as acting Chief of Staff and acting Inspector-General. He spent considerable time re-organizing, equipping, disciplining and drilling the army, and was instrumental in raising the Siege of Nashville and in opening the railway from that city to Louisville, Kentucky.

He was afterward appointed by the War Department as Inspector General of the Fourteenth Army Corps, and after the Battle of Stones River and the organization of the Army and Department of the Cumberland, he was appointed Inspector General of that army. He formulated and put in practice a system of picketing and outpostting an army which highly distinguished him. He maintained his role when Rosecrans was relieved and replaced by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas.

He was breveted colonel and brigadier general of volunteers on March 13, 1864, for "faithful and meritorious services." Ducat was honorably discharged on February 19, 1864. A contempoary wrote, "I regard him as an extraordinary man, an excellent tactician, a soldier by nature; so much so, that he never exacted the credit he easily merited, nor the promotion given to less able and more plodding men." General Ulysses S. Grant commented, "His services have been very valuable and have been highly appreciated." General Thomas wrote: "One of the most able and useful of the army staff and cannot well be spared." General Philip Sheridan characterized him as "an officer of high standing and distinguished merit." Another writer on the war says: "Ducat was early distinguished for his thorongh [sic] knowledge of military details, his organizing powers and his executive ability; but especially for his sleepless vigilance and activity, that mastered all details of topography and the movement of hostile armies."

Postbellum activities

Soon after the close of hostilities, the Home Insurance Company, of New York City, appointed Ducat to superintend its business in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, and shortly afterward he became its general agent in Chicago. He founded one of the city's most successful insurance agencies, the firm of Ducat & Lyon. he authored what became a standard reference work of the day. "Ducat's Practice of Fire Underwriting", which he published in 1857. Before the Great Chicago Fire, Ducat was chairman of the committee that organized the celebrated Fire Insurance Patrol of Chicago. He remained chairman of the Patrol Committee five years after the fire, and infused into a the "esprit du corps" and military spirit. He was chairman of the committee which framed the new building law after the Great Fire, and co-wrote the most elaborate building law in the country. The Board of Local Fire Underwriters was organized on the basis of his recommendation, with Ducat as its chairman.

In 1873 there was a movement in Illinois to reorganize the Illinois Army National Guard. Ducat its commander with the rank of major general. In 1886 he was elected commander of the Illinois Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and of the Masonic Order. He was married to Mary Lyon, a native of Bedford, Pennsylvania. Her death occurred in Chicago, October 26, 1890, at the age of forty-three years. In 1892 he was married to Alice Jane Soutar, daughter of P. J. Soutar, an eminent lawyer of Dunfermline, Scotland. His son, Arthur Charles Ducat Jr., Colonel, United States Army, is buried in the same gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery.

References

External links

* [http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/7197 Picture History]

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NAME= Ducat, Arthur
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SHORT DESCRIPTION= Union Army officer
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