George Meade
George Gordon Meade was an American military officer who served in the United States Army and the Union army as a major general in command of the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War from 1863 to 1865. He fought in many of the key battles of the eastern theater and defeated the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia led by General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg.
He was born in Cádiz, Spain, to a wealthy Philadelphia merchant family and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1835. He fought in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican–American War. He served in the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers and directed construction of lighthouses in Florida and New Jersey from 1851 to 1856 and the United States Lake Survey from 1857 to 1861.
His Civil War service began as brigadier general with the Pennsylvania Reserves, building defenses around Washington, D.C. He fought in the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Glendale and returned to lead his brigade at the Second Battle of Bull Run. As a division commander, he won the Battle of South Mountain and assumed temporary command of the I Corps at the Battle of Antietam. Meade's division broke through the lines at the Battle of Fredericksburg but were forced to retreat due to lack of support. Meade was promoted to major general and commander of the V Corps, which he led during the Battle of Chancellorsville.
He was appointed to command the Army of the Potomac just three days before the Battle of Gettysburg and arrived on the battlefield after the first day's action on July 1, 1863. He organized his forces on favorable ground to fight an effective defensive battle against Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and repelled a series of massive assaults throughout the next two days. While elated about the victory, President Abraham Lincoln was critical of Meade due to his perception of an ineffective pursuit during the retreat, which allowed Lee and his army to escape back to Virginia. That fall, Meade's troops had a minor victory in the Bristoe Campaign but a stalemate at the Battle of Mine Run. Meade's cautious approach prompted Lincoln to look for a new commander of the Army of the Potomac.
In 1864–1865, Meade continued to command the Army of the Potomac through the Overland Campaign, the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign, and the Appomattox Campaign, but he was overshadowed by the direct supervision of the general-in-chief, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who accompanied him throughout these campaigns. Grant conducted most of the strategy during these campaigns, leaving Meade with significantly less influence than before. After the war, Meade commanded the Military Division of the Atlantic from 1865 to 1866 and again from 1869 to 1872. He oversaw the formation of the state governments and reentry into the United States for five southern states through his command of the Department of the South from 1866 to 1868 and the Third Military District in 1872. Meade was subjected to intense political rivalries within the Army, notably with Major Gen. Daniel Sickles, who tried to discredit Meade's role in the victory at Gettysburg. He had a notoriously short temper which earned him the nickname of "Old Snapping Turtle".
Early life and education
Meade was born on December 31, 1815, in Cádiz, Spain, the eighth of ten children of Richard Worsam Meade and Margaret Coats Butler. His grandfather Irishman George Meade was a wealthy merchant and land speculator in Philadelphia. His father was wealthy due to Spanish-American trade and was appointed U.S. naval agent. He was ruined financially because of his support of Spain in the Peninsular War; his family returned to the United States in 1817, in precarious financial straits.Meade attended elementary school in Philadelphia and the American Classical and Military Lyceum, a private school in Philadelphia modeled after the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His father died in 1828 when George was 12 years old and he was taken out of the Germantown military academy. George was placed in a school run by Salmon P. Chase in Washington, D.C.; however, it closed after a few months due to Chase's other obligations. He was then placed in the Mount Hope Institution in Baltimore, Maryland.
Meade entered the United States Military Academy at West Point on July 1, 1831. He would have preferred to attend college and study law and did not enjoy his time at West Point. He graduated 19th in his class of 56 cadets in 1835. He was uninterested in the details of military dress and drills and accumulated 168 demerits, only 32 short of the amount that would trigger a mandatory dismissal.
Topographical Corps and Mexican-American War
Meade was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery. He worked for a summer as an assistant surveyor on the construction of the Long Island Railroad and was assigned to service in Florida. He fought in the Second Seminole War and was assigned to accompany a group of Seminole to Indian territory in the West. He became a full second lieutenant by year's end, and in the fall of 1836, after the minimum required one year of service, he resigned from the army. He returned to Florida and worked as a private citizen for his brother-in-law, James Duncan Graham, as an assistant surveyor to the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers on a railroad project. He conducted additional survey work for the Topographical Engineers on the Texas-Louisiana border, the Mississippi River Delta and the northeastern boundary of Maine and Canada.In 1842, a congressional measure was passed that excluded civilians from working in the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers and Meade reentered the army as a second lieutenant in order to continue his work with them. In November 1843, he was assigned to work on lighthouse construction under Major Hartman Bache. He worked on the Brandywine Shoal lighthouse in the Delaware Bay.
Meade served in the Mexican–American War and was assigned to the staffs of Generals Zachary Taylor and Robert Patterson. He fought at the Battle of Palo Alto, the Battle of Resaca de la Palma and the Battle of Monterrey. He served under General William Worth at Monterrey and led a party up a hill to attack a fortified position. He was brevetted to first lieutenant and received a gold-mounted sword for gallantry from the citizens of Philadelphia.
In 1849, Meade was assigned to Fort Brooke in Florida to assist with Seminole attacks on settlements. In 1851, he led the construction of the Carysfort Reef Light in Key Largo. In 1852, the Topographical Corps established the United States Lighthouse Board and Meade was appointed the Seventh District engineer with responsibilities in Florida. He led the construction of Sand Key Light in Key West; Jupiter Inlet Light in Jupiter, Florida; and Sombrero Key Light in the Florida Keys. When Bache was reassigned to the West Coast, Meade took over responsibility for the Fourth District in New Jersey and Delaware and built the Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island, Absecon Light in Atlantic City, and the Cape May Light in Cape May. He also designed a hydraulic lamp that was used in several American lighthouses. Meade received an official promotion to first lieutenant in 1851, and to captain in 1856.
In 1857, Meade was given command of the Lakes Survey mission of the Great Lakes. Completion of the survey of Lake Huron and extension of the surveys of Lake Michigan down to Grand and Little Traverse Bays were done under his command. Prior to Captain Meade's command, Great Lakes' water level readings were taken locally with temporary gauges; a uniform plane of reference had not been established. In 1858, based on his recommendation, instrumentation was set in place for the tabulation of records across the basin. Meade stayed with the Lakes Survey until the 1861 outbreak of the Civil War.
American Civil War
Meade was appointed brigadier general of volunteers on August 31, 1861, a few months after the start of the American Civil War, based on the strong recommendation of Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin. He was assigned command of the 2nd Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves under General George A. McCall. The Pennsylvania Reserves were initially assigned to the construction of defenses around Washington, D.C.Peninsula campaign
In March 1862, the Army of the Potomac was reorganized into four corps, Meade served as part of the I Corps under Maj. Gen Irvin McDowell. The I Corps was stationed in the Rappahannock area, but in June, the Pennsylvania Reserves were detached and sent to the Peninsula to reinforce the main army. With the onset of the Seven Days Battles on June 25, the Reserves were directly involved in the fighting. At Mechanicsville and Gaines Mill, Meade's brigade was mostly held in reserve, but at Glendale on June 30, the brigade was in the middle of a fierce battle. His brigade lost 1,400 men and Meade was shot in the right arm and through the back. He was sent home to Philadelphia to recuperate. Meade resumed command of his brigade in time for the Second Battle of Bull Run, then assigned to Major General Irvin McDowell's corps of the Army of Virginia. His brigade made a heroic stand on Henry House Hill to protect the rear of the retreating Union Army.Maryland campaign
The division's commander John F. Reynolds was sent to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to train militia units and Meade assumed temporary division command at the Battle of South Mountain and the Battle of Antietam. Under Meade's command, the division successfully attacked and captured a strategic position on high ground near Turner's Gap held by Robert E. Rodes' troops which forced the withdrawal of other Confederate troops. When Meade's troops stormed the heights, the corps commander Joseph Hooker, exclaimed, "Look at Meade! Why, with troops like those, led in that way, I can win anything!"On September 17, 1862, at Antietam, Meade assumed temporary command of the I Corps and oversaw fierce combat after Hooker was wounded and requested Meade replace him. On September 29, 1862, Reynolds returned from his service in Harrisburg. Reynolds assumed command of the I Corps and Meade assumed command of the Third Division.