Biography george meade
Home / Historical Figures / Biography george meade
Due to the expansion of Grant’s immediate scope of command—a consequence of the Army of the Potomac linking up with the Army of the James to operate against Richmond and Petersburg during the summer of 1864—Meade’s role in planning operations increased somewhat.
Battle of Chancellorsville
At the Battle of Chancellorsville (April 30-May 6, 1863), commanding General Joseph Hooker left Meade’s corps in reserve throughout the engagement, contributing to another federal defeat.
Army of the Potomac Commander
Following the loss at Chancellorsville, Hooker resigned his command and President Abraham Lincoln placed Meade in charge of the Army of the Potomac on June 27, 1863.
After a brief courtship, the couple married on December 31, 1840, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Return to Army Life
In 1842, Meade returned to the army as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers. In 1868 Meade briefly served in Atlanta as the governor of the Third Military District, a temporary government that controlled Georgia, Alabama and Florida during Reconstruction.
For the next several months, Meade worked on constructing the defenses around Washington, DC.
Seriously Wounded During Peninsula Campaign
In March 1862, army officials attached Meade’s command to the Army of the Potomac, and they took part in Major General George B. McClellan‘s Peninsula Campaign in Virginia.
Consequently, as long as Meade was in command the war in Virginia was almost exclusively one between armies rather than populations. Promoted to division command at the outset of the Maryland Campaign in September 1862, Meade performed well at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam and exercised temporary command of a corps during the latter engagement.
A few months later, Meade’s division achieved the only significant tactical success the Army of the Potomac achieved at the otherwise disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg (1862), which was followed shortly thereafter by his promotion to command of the Fifth Corps.
After the Mexican-American War, Meade remained in the military working as an engineer on the East Coast, in Florida, and in the Great Lakes areas. On the battle’s third day, Meade’s tactical positioning and marshaling of his forces proved invaluable when the Army of the Potomac repelled a massive attack on the center of its lines during “Pickett’s Charge.” This failed Confederate offensive resulted in massive casualties, and led to an immediate Confederate retreat from the North.
Despite having won the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, Meade immediately came under harsh criticism—in particular from President Abraham Lincoln—for what was seen as his failure to destroy Lee’s battered army, which had escaped across the Potomac River before it could be intercepted.
Despite his crucial role in cornering the Confederate Army, Meade was not present during Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in April 1865, and most of the credit for winning the war was given to Ulysses S. Grant and General William T. Sherman.
George Meade: Post-Civil War Career
Meade remained in the U.S. Army after the end of the Civil War and served as the commanding officer of the Division of the Atlantic, headquartered in Pennsylvania.
Although he did not relish military life, Meade performed well academically and graduated in 1835, nineteenth in his class of fifty-six cadets.
U.S. Nevertheless, officials promoted Meade to brigadier general in the regular army and he received the Thanks of Congress on January 28, 1864.Overland Campaign
On March 12, 1864, Lincoln appointed Ulysses S.
Grant as General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States. Consequently, his appointment to command the Army of the Potomac on June 28, 1863, met with approval from nearly every member of the army’s high command.
The Army of the Potomac was in turmoil. Having long suffered from complications caused by his war wounds, Meade died in 1872 at the age of 56 following a bout with pneumonia.
Early Life
George Gordon Meade was born on December 31, 1815, in Cadiz, Spain.
Army Officer
After graduation, the army brevetted Meade as a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Artillery and sent him to Florida, where he took part in the Second Seminole War (1835-1842). During a large-scale offensive, Meade’s division was one of the only Union units to breach the Confederate’s well-fortified lines, earning him a promotion to major general of volunteers.
He went on to command the Army of the Potomac’s V Corps under General Joseph Hooker during the Union defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.
George Meade: The Battle of Gettysburg
Meade was unexpectedly placed in charge of the Union Army of the Potomac in late June 1863 after Hooker resigned his post.
Grant, however, did accompany the Army of the Potomac throughout the Overland Campaign of 1864 and ended up making all the important decisions as to its movements, leaving their execution largely to Meade. While in Florida, Meade contracted a prolonged fever, and the army transferred him to the Watertown Arsenal in Massachusetts to recover.
Meade’s grave is in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.
George Gordon Meade was born on December 31, 1815, in Cádiz, Spain, to American parents, Richard W. Meade, an agent for the U.S. Navy, and Margaret Coates Meade. He was raised mostly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, though he also lived in Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.
He was graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1835 (finishing nineteenth in his class), saw service in the Mexican War (1846–1848), and spent several years prior to the Civil War in charge of lighthouse construction and surveying the Great Lakes.
In 1861, he was given command of a brigade of Pennsylvania troops, with whom he first saw action at the Battle of Gaines’s Mill in June 1862.
That such an approach appeared inadequate to the task of achieving ultimate victory in what Lincoln proclaimed to be a “people’s contest” was perhaps the most compelling rationale for the “hard war” Grant brought to Virginia in 1864 and 1865.
.
He was also instrumental in the prolonged Siege of Petersburg (June 1864-March 1865), which was launched after Meade’s early assaults on the city resulted in heavy Union casualties.Due to his brusque personality and quick temper, Meade was never a popular figure with the media, and his contributions to later battles and the eventual Union victory were often downplayed in the Northern press.
Civilian Engineer
While convalescing, Meade resigned his commission on October 26, 1836, to pursue a civilian engineering career with a railroad company.