1. George Gordon Meade was an American military officer who served in the United States Army and the Union army as Major General in command of the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War from 1863 to 1865.
99 Facts About George Meade
1. 2.
George Meade was born in Cadiz, Spain, to a wealthy Philadelphia merchant family and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1835.
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George Meade 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.
4.
George Meade was severely wounded at the Battle of Glendale and returned to lead his brigade at the Second Battle of Bull Run.
5.
George Meade was promoted to major general and commander of the V Corps, which he led during the Battle of Chancellorsville.
6.
George Meade 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.
7.
That fall, George Meade's troops had a minor victory in the Bristoe Campaign but a stalemate at the Battle of Mine Run.
8.
George Meade 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.
9.
George Meade was subjected to intense political rivalries within the Army, notably with Major Gen.
10.
George Meade had a notoriously short temper which earned him the nickname of "Old Snapping Turtle".
11.
George Meade was born on December 31,1815, in Cadiz, Spain, the eighth of ten children of Richard Worsam George Meade and Margaret Coats Butler.
12.
George Meade's grandfather Irishman George Meade was a wealthy merchant and land speculator in Philadelphia.
13.
George Meade's father was wealthy due to Spanish-American trade and was appointed US naval agent.
14.
George Meade 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.
15.
George Meade attended elementary school in Philadelphia and the American Classical and Military Lyceum, a private school in Philadelphia modeled after the US Military Academy at West Point.
16.
George Meade's father died in 1828 when George was 12 years old and he was taken out of the Germantown military academy.
17.
George Meade was then placed in the Mount Hope Institution in Baltimore, Maryland.
18.
George Meade entered the United States Military Academy at West Point on July 1,1831.
19.
George Meade would have preferred to attend college and study law and did not enjoy his time at West Point.
20.
George Meade graduated 19th in his class of 56 cadets in 1835.
21.
George Meade 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.
22.
George Meade was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 3rd Artillery.
23.
George Meade worked for a summer as an assistant surveyor on the construction of the Long Island Railroad and was assigned to service in Florida.
24.
George Meade fought in the Second Seminole War and was assigned to accompany a group of Seminole to Indian territory in the West.
25.
George Meade 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.
26.
George Meade 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.
27.
George Meade 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.
28.
In 1842, a congressional measure was passed which excluded civilians from working in the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers and George Meade reentered the army as a second lieutenant in order to continue his work with them.
29.
George Meade worked on the Brandywine Shoal lighthouse in the Delaware Bay.
30.
George Meade fought at the Battle of Palo Alto, the Battle of Resaca de la Palma and the Battle of Monterrey.
31.
George Meade served under General William Worth at Monterrey and led a party up a hill to attack a fortified position.
32.
George Meade was brevetted to first lieutenant and received a gold-mounted sword for gallantry from the citizens of Philadelphia.
33.
In 1849, George Meade was assigned to Fort Brooke in Florida to assist with Seminole attacks on settlements.
34.
In 1852, the Topographical Corps established the United States Lighthouse Board and George Meade was appointed the Seventh District engineer with responsibilities in Florida.
35.
George Meade led the construction of Sand Key Light in Key West; Jupiter Inlet Light in Jupiter, Florida; and Sombrero Key Light in the Florida Keys.
36.
George Meade received an official promotion to first lieutenant in 1851, and to captain in 1856.
37.
In 1857, George Meade was given command of the Lakes Survey mission of the Great Lakes.
38.
George Meade stayed with the Lakes Survey until the 1861 outbreak of the Civil War.
39.
George 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.
40.
George Meade was assigned command of the 2nd Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves under General George A McCall.
41.
In March 1862, the Army of the Potomac was reorganized into four corps, George Meade served as part of the I Corps under Maj.
42.
George Meade's brigade lost 1,400 men and Meade was shot in the right arm and through the back.
43.
George 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.
44.
George Meade's brigade made a heroic stand on Henry House Hill to protect the rear of the retreating Union Army.
45.
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.
46.
On September 17,1862, at Antietam, George Meade assumed temporary command of the I Corps and oversaw fierce combat after Hooker was wounded and requested George Meade replace him.
47.
Reynolds assumed command of the I Corps and George Meade assumed command of the Third Division.
48.
On December 22,1862, George Meade replaced Daniel Butterfield in command of the V Corps which he led in the Battle of Chancellorsville.
49.
George Meade's corps was left in reserve for most of the battle, contributing to the Union defeat.
50.
George Meade was among Hooker's commanders who argued to advance against Lee, but Hooker chose to retreat.
51.
George Meade learned afterward that Hooker misrepresented his position on the advance and confronted him.
52.
George Meade had not actively sought command and was not the president's first choice.
53.
George Meade assumed command of the Army of the Potomac on June 28,1863.
54.
George Meade was only four days into his leadership of the Army of the Potomac and informed his corps commanders that he would provide quick decisions and entrust them with the authority to carry out those orders the best way they saw fit.
55.
George Meade made it clear that he was counting on the corps commanders to provide him with sound advice on strategy.
56.
Since George Meade was new to high command, he did not remain in headquarters but constantly moved about the battlefield, issuing orders and ensuring that they were followed.
57.
George Meade gave orders for the Army of the Potomac to move forward in a broad front to prevent Lee from flanking them and threatening the cities of Baltimore and Washington DC He issued a conditional plan for a retreat to Pipe Creek, Maryland in case things went poorly for the Union.
58.
On July 2,1863, George Meade continued to monitor and maintain the placement of the troops.
59.
George Meade was outraged when he discovered that Daniel Sickles had moved his Corps one mile forward to high ground without Meade's permission and left a gap in the line which threatened Sickles' right flank.
60.
George Meade recognized that Little Round Top was critical to maintaining the left flank.
61.
George Meade sent chief engineer Gouverneur Warren to determine the status of the hill and quickly issued orders for the V Corps to occupy it when it was discovered empty.
62.
George Meade continued to reinforce the troops defending Little Round Top from Longstreet's advance and suffered the near destruction of thirteen brigades.
63.
One questionable decision George Meade made that day was to order Slocum's XII Corps to move from Culp's Hill to the left flank which allowed Confederate troops to temporarily capture a portion of it.
64.
On July 3,1863, George Meade gave orders for the XII Corps and XI Corps to retake the lost portion of Culp's Hill and personally rode the length of the lines from Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top to inspect the troops.
65.
George Meade's headquarters were in the Leister House directly behind Cemetery Ridge which exposed it to the 150-gun cannonade which began at 1 pm.
66.
George Meade did not want to vacate the headquarters and make it more difficult for messages to find him, but the situation became too dire and the house was evacuated.
67.
George Meade reacted swiftly to fierce assaults on his line's left and right which culminated in Lee's disastrous assault on the center, known as Pickett's Charge.
68.
George Meade was criticized by President Lincoln and others for not aggressively pursuing the Confederates during their retreat.
69.
George Meade wrote back and offered to resign his command, but Halleck refused the resignation and clarified that his communication was not meant as a rebuke but an incentive to continue the pursuit of Lee's army.
70.
George Meade wrote the following to his wife after meeting President Lincoln:.
71.
George Meade found no fault with my operations, although it was very evident he was disappointed that I had not got a battle out of Lee.
72.
George Meade coincided with me that there was not much to be gained by any farther advance; but General Halleck was very urgent that something should be done, but what that something was he did not define.
73.
George Meade felt pressure from Halleck and the Lincoln administration to pursue Lee into Virginia but he was cautious due to a misperception that Lee's Army was 70,000 in size when the reality was they were only 55,000 compared to the Army of the Potomac at 76,000.
74.
The Army of the Potomac was stationed along the north bank of the Rapidan River and George Meade made his headquarters in Culpeper, Virginia.
75.
George Meade successfully outmaneuvered Lee in the campaign and gained a small victory.
76.
In late November 1863, George Meade planned one last offensive against Lee before winter weather limited troop movement.
77.
George Meade determined that the Confederate forces were too strong and was convinced by Warren that an attack would have been suicidal.
78.
George Meade held a council of war which concluded to withdraw across the Rapidan River during the night of December 1,1863.
79.
George Meade offered to resign and stated the task at hand was of such importance that he would not stand in the way of Grant choosing the right man for the job and offered to serve wherever placed.
80.
Grant assured George Meade he had no intentions of replacing him.
81.
Grant knew that George Meade disapproved of Lincoln's strategy and was unpopular with politicians and the press.
82.
George Meade ordered Warren to attack with his whole Corps and had Hancock reinforce with his II Corps.
83.
George Meade ordered additional Union troops to join the battle but they struggled to maintain formation and communicate with each other in the thick woods of the Wilderness.
84.
The Union Army moved ponderously slowly toward their new positions and George Meade lashed out at Maj.
85.
George Meade apparently knew nothing of this arrangement, and the reporters giving all of the credit to Grant angered George Meade.
86.
George Meade was opposed to Grant's recommendations to directly attack fortified Confederate positions which resulted in huge losses of Union soldiers.
87.
George Meade became frustrated with his lack of autonomy and his performance as a military leader suffered.
88.
George Meade wanted the role to free himself from under Grant; however, the position was given to Sheridan.
89.
When George Meade asked Grant why it did not go to himself, the more experienced officer, Grant stated that Lincoln did not want to take George Meade away from the Army of the Potomac and imply that his leadership was substandard.
90.
George Meade was a Douglas Democrat and saw the preservation of the Union as the war's true goal and only opposed slavery as it threatened to tear the Union apart.
91.
George Meade was a supporter of McClellan, the previously removed commander of the Army of the Potomac, and was politically aligned with him.
92.
When George Meade was awakened in the middle of the night and informed that he was given command of the Army of the Potomac, he later wrote to his wife that he assumed that Army politics had caught up with him and he was being arrested.
93.
George Meade was prone to bouts of anger and rashness and was paranoid about political enemies coming after him.
94.
Radical Republicans, some of whom like Thaddeus Stevens were former Know Nothings and hostile to Irish Catholics like George Meade's family, in the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War suspected that George Meade was a Copperhead and tried in vain to relieve him from command.
95.
In July 1865, George Meade assumed command of the Military Division of the Atlantic headquartered in Philadelphia.
96.
George Meade returned to command of the Military Division of the Atlantic in Philadelphia.
97.
George Meade effectively served in semi-retirement as the commander of the Military Division of the Atlantic from his home in Philadelphia.
98.
George Meade was a commissioner of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia from 1866 until his death.
99.
George Meade has been portrayed in several films and television shows:.