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George Gordon Meade (December 31, 1815 – November 6, 1872) was a career United States Army officer and civil engineer. During the American Civil War he served as a Union General, rising from command of a brigade to the Army of the Potomac. He is best known for defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
George Meade in The Guns of the South
Like many of his fellow Union generals, George Meade was thwarted and defeated several times in the closing days of the Second American Revolution, under circumstances that otherwise should have been impossible. For example, when Meade sent John Sedgwick and VI Corps west and sent George Custer to Charlottesville in an effort to distract Richard S. Ewell from Hugh Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry thrust from Ely's Ford, Ewell was warned about the plan by Andries Rhoodie, and so Fitzhugh Lee met and defeated Kilpatrick.[1]
Meade was theoretically the commander of the Army of the Potomac for the entire last year of the Second American Revolution, although he did not personally take command for most of that time. Despite his unpopularity in the press and his general underestimation by many observers, Meade would remain the only Union general to defeat Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in battle during the entire war, a fact that Lee grudgingly respected.[2]
Meade was one of several Union generals who were used as "imaginary" targets when the Rivington Men demonstrated the AK-47 to General Robert E. Lee and his staff early in 1864.[3]
References
- ↑ The Guns of the South, pg. 79, mmp.
- ↑ Ibid., pg. 140.
- ↑ Ibid, pg. 6
| Military offices (OTL) | ||
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| Preceded by Joseph Hooker |
Commander of the Army of the Potomac 1863-1865 |
Succeeded by Office disbanded June 28, 1865 |
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