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George Gordon Meade ( December 31 1815 – November 6 1872 ) was a career U.S. Army officer and engineer involved in coastal construction. During the American Civil War he served as a Union General , and is best known for defeating Robert E. Lee at the Battle Of Gettysburg . EARLY CAREER Meade was born in Cádiz , Spain . His father, a wealthy American merchant, was ruined financially due in part to his support of Spain in the Napoleonic Wars . After his family returned to the United States, Meade attended the Mount Hope Institution in Baltimore and graduated from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1835. For a year, he served with the 3rd U.S. Artillery in Florida , fighting against the Seminole Indians , before resigning from the Army, a career he had not intended to pursue, even at West Point. He worked as a Civil Engineer for the Alabama, Georgia, and Florida Railroad and for the War Department . Finding steady civilian employment was difficult, so he reentered the army in 1842 as a Second Lieutenant in the corps of Topographical engineers. Meade served in the Mexican War , assigned to the staffs of Generals Zachary Taylor , William J. Worth , and Robert Patterson , and was Brevet ted to First Lieutenant for gallant conduct at the Battle Of Monterrey . After that war he was chiefly involved in Lighthouse and breakwater construction and coastal surveying in Florida and New Jersey . He designed Barnegat Lighthouse on Long Beach Island , Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City , Cape May Lighthouse in Cape May , Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse in Jupiter, Florida , and Sombrero Key Light in the Florida Keys . He also designed a hydraulic lamp that was adopted by the Lighthouse Board for use in American lighthouses. His career as a military engineer was uneventful until the 1861 eruption of the Civil War. CIVIL WAR Early commands Meade was promoted from Captain to Brigadier General of volunteers on August 31 1861 , a few months after the start of the Civil War, based on the strong recommendation of Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin . He was assigned command of one of the three Brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves recruited early in the war, which he led competently, primarily in the construction of defenses around Washington, D.C. His brigade joined Major General George B. McClellan 's Army Of The Potomac for the Peninsula Campaign . During the Seven Days Battles , Meade was severely wounded at the Battle Of Glendale in the arm, back, and side. He partially recovered in time for the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle Of Bull Run , after which he received a Division al command. Meade distinguished himself during the Battle Of South Mountain . In the Battle Of Antietam , he replaced the wounded Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker in command of I Corps , performing well, but Meade was also wounded himself at Antietam, in the thigh. During the Battle Of Fredericksburg , Meade's division made the only breakthrough of the Confederate lines, spearheading through a gap in General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's corps. For this action, Meade was promoted to major general of volunteers, to rank from November 29 1862 . However, his attack was not reinforced, resulting in the loss of much of his division. After the battle, he received command of V Corps , which he led in the Battle Of Chancellorsville the following spring. General Hooker, then commanding the Army of the Potomac, had grand, aggressive plans for the campaign, but was too timid in execution against Confederate General Robert E. Lee, leaving Meade's effective corps in reserve for most of the battle, contributing to the Union Army defeat. Army of the Potomac , William H. French , Meade, Henry J. Hunt , Andrew A. Humphreys , George Sykes ) in September 1863.]] Hooker resigned from command of the Army of the Potomac while pursuing Lee in the Gettysburg Campaign . President Abraham Lincoln sent a messenger to appoint Meade as his replacement in the early morning hours of June 28 1863 . Meade was taken by surprise and later wrote to his wife that when the officer entered his tent to wake him, he assumed that Army politics had caught up with him and he was being arrested. He had not actively sought command and was not the president's first choice. There were four other major generals who outranked him in the Army of the Potomac, and one, John F. Reynolds , had earlier turned down the president's suggestion that he take over. Meade assumed his crucial command while Lee's Army Of Northern Virginia was invading Pennsylvania and, as a former corps commander, had little knowledge of the disposition of the rest of his new army. Only three days later he confronted Lee in the Battle Of Gettysburg , where he won the battle that is considered a Turning Point of the war. Meade skillfully deployed his forces in a defensive battle, reacting swiftly to fierce assaults on his line's left, right, and center. He made excellent use of capable subordinates, such as John F. Reynolds and Winfield S. Hancock , to whom he delegated great responsibilities. (Unfortunately for Meade's reputation, he did not skillfully manage the political manipulators he inherited from Hooker. Generals Daniel Sickles , III Corps commander, and Daniel Butterfield , Meade's Chief Of Staff , caused him difficulty later in the war, questioning his command decisions and courage. Radical Republicans in the Congressional Joint Committee For The Conduct Of The War suspected that Meade was a Copperhead and tried in vain to relieve him from command.) Following his severe losses in Pickett's Charge , General Lee's army retreated back into Virginia . Meade was criticized by President Lincoln and others for not aggressively pursuing the Confederates during their retreat. At one point, the Army of Northern Virginia was extremely vulnerable with their backs to the rain-swollen, almost impassable Potomac River , but they were able to erect strong defensive positions before Meade could organize an effective attack. Lincoln believed that this wasted an opportunity to end the war. Nonetheless, Meade received a promotion to brigadier general in the Regular Army and the Thanks of Congress, which commended Meade "... and the officers and soldiers of Army of the Potomac , for the skill and heroic valor which at Gettysburg repulsed, defeated, and drove back, broken and dispirited, beyond the Rappahannock , the veteran army of the rebellion." For the remainder of the fall campaigning season in 1863, during both the Bristoe Campaign and the Mine Run Campaign , Meade was outmaneuvered by Lee and withdrew after fighting minor, inconclusive battles, due to his reluctance to attack entrenched positions. With Grant When Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant was appointed commander of all Union armies in 1864, Meade and the Army of the Potomac became subordinate to him. Grant made his headquarters with Meade for the remainder of the war. Following an incident in June 1864, in which Meade disciplined a reporter from the ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' newspaper for an unfavorable article, all of the press assigned to his army agreed to mention Meade only in conjunction with setbacks. Most certainly, Meade knew nothing of this arrangement, and the reporters apparently giving all of the credit to Grant angered Meade. He fought effectively during the Overland Campaign and the Siege Of Petersburg , after which Grant requested that he be promoted to major general of the Regular Army. Although he fought during the Appomattox Campaign , Meade felt slighted that Grant and cavalry commander Major General Philip Sheridan received most of the credit (and that Sheridan, his junior, was promoted to permanent major general before he was). Meade commanded the Army of the Potomac until Lee's surrender in 1865. Command decisions Meade's decisions in command of the Army of the Potomac have been the focus of controversy. He has been accused of not being aggressive enough in pursuit of Confederate forces, and being reluctant to attack on occasion. (It should be noted that Meade never lost a major battle he initiated himself. Most of the bloody repulses his army suffered in the Overland Campaign were ordered by Grant.) Meade's short temper earned him notoriety, and while he was respected by most of his peers, he was not well-loved by his army. Some referred to him as "a damned old goggle-eyed snapping turtle". But most damaging was Daniel Sickles 's vicious postwar campaign against Meade's character. Sickles had developed a personal vendetta against Meade due to his allegiance to Joseph Hooker, whom Meade replaced, and because of violent disagreements at Gettysburg. (Sickles's grossly insubordinate actions as the commander of the III Corps almost lost the battle, and perhaps the war, for the Union.) Meade's reputation among the public and nineteenth century historians suffered as a result. Recent historical works have portrayed him in a better-deserved positive light. They have acknowledged that Meade displayed and acted upon an understanding of the necessary changes in tactics brought about by improvements in weapons technology. His decisions to Entrench when practicable and not launch frontal assaults on fortified positions should have been more carefully studied; they were lessons that could have been used to great effect on the Western Front during World War I . POSTBELLUM CAREER , located close to the point where Pickett's Charge was repulsed.]] General Meade was the commissioner of Fairmount Park in Pennsylvania from 1866 until his death. He also held various military commands, including the Military Division of the Atlantic, the Department of the East, and the Department of the South. He replaced General John Pope as governor the Third Military District and arrived in Atlanta on January 10 1868 . He received an honorary Doctorate in Law (LL.D.) from Harvard University , and his Scientific achievements were recognized by various institutions, including the American Philosophical Society and the Philadelphia Academy Of Natural Sciences . Meade died in Philadelphia , due to complications from his old wounds, combined with Pneumonia , and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery . There are statues of him throughout Pennsylvania, including a few in Gettysburg . The U.S. Army Installation Fort George G. Meade in Fort Meade, Maryland , is named for him. The Old Baldy Civil War Round Table in Philadelphia is named in honor of Meade's horse during the war. IN POPULAR MEDIA Meade is portrayed by Richard Anderson in the film '' Gettysburg '', a film adaptation of Michael Shaara 's novel, '' The Killer Angels ''. Meade is a character in the Alternate History novel ''Gettysburg'', written by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen . REFERENCES
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