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George Meade Biography

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MEADE,  George Gordon (1815-72). An American soldier, born of American parentage at Cadiz, Spain, Dec. 31, 1815. He attended school in Philadelphia, Washington, and Baltimore; graduated at West Point in 1835, and served in the Seminole War. In October, 1836, be resigned from the army, adopted the profession of civil engineer, and between 1837 and 1842 was employed as an assistant engineer in the surveys made by the United States government of the delta of the Mississippi, the Texas boundary, and the northeastern boundary of the United States. In 1842 he was reappointed to the army as a second lieutenant in the corps of topographical engineers. On the breaking out of the war with Mexico, when General Taylor crossed the Rio Grande, he was ordered to the front and served with distinction throughout the war. Later he was employed in superintending river and harbor improvements and in the construction of lighthouses on Delaware Bay and off the coast of Florida. He was promoted to be first lieutenant in 1851 and captain in 1856 and had charge of the national survey of the northern lakes until 1861. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was ordered to Washington; was commissioned brigadier general of volunteers Aug. 31, 1861, and was placed in command of the second brigade of the Pennsylvania reserve corps. He was in the action at Dranesville, Va., December 20; was at Mechanicsville, June 26, 1862, and at the battle of Gaines's Mill on the following day; and served with his reserves throughout the Peninsular campaign, being severely wounded, June 30, at the battle of Frazier's Farm. On August 29-30, having recovered from his wound, he was engaged in the second battle of Bull Run, and in September took command of a division of the First Army Corps. At the battle of Antietam he was slightly wounded and had two horses shot under him. In recognition of his gallantry in this battle. he received command of the Fifth Army Corps and on Nov. 29, 1862, was commissioned major general of volunteers, He was engaged in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, covering the retreat at Chancellorsville with his corps and guarding the crossings until the entire army was safely over the Rappahannock. On June 28, 1863, he was unexpectedly ordered to succeed General Hooker in the command of the Army of the Potomac. The main army of the Confederates, under General Lee, had invaded Pennsylvania, and it devolved upon Meade to arrest this movement and drive back the enemy. Portions of Lee's army had reached York, Carlisle, and the Susquehanna; but upon the advance of the Federal army these were called in. On July 1 the hostile armies met at Gettysburg and a three days’ battle ensued, which resulted in the utter discomfiture of Lee, who, however, was not pursued with any vigor. (See GETTYSBURG, BATTLE OF.) For this victory Meade was publicly thanked by a resolution of Congress passed Jan. 28, 1866. From May 4, 1864, to April 9, 1865, General Meade commanded the Army of the Potomac, under General Grant, through the bloody struggle in the Wilderness and until the surrender of Lee. On Aug. 18, 1864; he was commissioned a major general in the United States army. At the close of the war he was placed in command of the Military Division of the Atlantic, which command he retained from July 1, 1865, to Aug. 6, 1866.During the years 1866-67 he was in command of the Department of the East, and subsequently of the third military district of the South (under the reconstruction laws). From March, 1869, until his death he was again in command of the Military Division of the Atlantic. He died on Nov. 6, 1872. Citizens of Philadelphia presented him with a house, and after his death a fund of $100,000 was collected by subscription and presented to his family. Consult R. M. Bache, Life of General G. G. Meade (Philadelphia, 1897), and I. R. Pennypacker, General Meade (New York, 1901), in the "Great Commanders Series."