GEORGE

See also:

• GORDON
• GORDON, ADAM LINDSAY (1833—1870)
• GORDON, ALEXANDER (c. 1692—c. 1754)
• GORDON, CHARLES GEORGE (1833-'885)
• GORDON, LEON
• GORDON, LORD GEORGE (1751-1793)
• GORDON, PATRICK (1635–1699)
• GORDON, SIR JOHN WATSON (1788—1864)

GORDON

See also:

• GEORGE GORDON MEADE (1815—1872)
• MEADE, WILLIAM (1789-1862)

MEADE (1815—1872)  , American soldier, was born of American parentage at Cadiz, Spain, on the 31st of December 1815 . On graduation at the United States Military Academy in 1835, he served in Florida with the 3rd Artillery against the Seminoles . Resigning from the army in 1836, he became a civil engineer awl constructor of railways, and was engaged under the war department in survey work . In 1842 he was appointed a second lieutenant in the corps of the topographical engineers . In the war with Mexico he was on the staffs successively of Generals Taylor, J . Worth and Robert Patterson, and was brevetted for gallant conduct at Monterey . Until the Civil War he was engaged in various engineering works, mainly in connexion with lighthouses, and later as a captain of topographical engineers in the survey of the northern lakes . In 1861 he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and had command of the 2nd brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves in the Army of the Potomac under General M'Call . He served in the Seven Days, receiving a severe wound at the action of Frazier's Farm . He was absent from his command until the second battle of Bull Run, after which he obtained the command of his division . He distinguished himself greatly at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam . At Fredericksburg he and his division won great distinction by their attack on the position held by Jackson's corps, and Meade was promoted major-general of volunteers, to date from the 29th of November .

Soon afterwards he was placed in command of the V. corps . At

Chancellorsville he displayed great intrepidity and energy, and on the eve of the battle of Gettysburg was appointed to succeed Hooker . The choice was unexpected, but Meade justified it by his conduct of the operations, and in the famous three days' battle he inflicted a complete defeat on General Lee's army . His reward was the commission of brigadier-general in the regular army . In the autumn of 1863 a war of manceuvre was fought between the two commanders, on the whole favourably to the Union arms . Grant, commanding all the armies of the United States, joined the Army of the Potomac in the spring of 1864, and remained with it until the end of the war; but he continued Meade in his command, and successfully urged his appointment as ' major-general in the regular army (Aug . 18, 1864), eulogizing him as the commander who had successfully met and defeated the best general and the strongest army on the Confederate side . After the war Meade commanded successively the military division of the Atlantic, the department of the east, the third military district (Georgia and Alabama) and the department of the south . He died at Philadelphia on the 6th of November, 1872 . The degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Harvard University, and his scientific attainments were recognized by the American Philosophical Society and the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences . There are .statues of General Meade in Philadelphia and at Gettysburg . See I .

R . Pennypacker, General Meade (" Great Commanders "

series, New York, 1901) .