biography
| name: |
Meade, George Gordon
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1815–72)
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| biography:
| US soldier, born in Cadiz, Spain. The son of a US naval agent, he trained at West Point (1835), saw action in Mexico, served as a military engineer, and received command of a Pennsylvania brigade at the outbreak of the Civil War. He assumed increasingly larger commands in many major battles, including the Peninsular Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. After General Joseph Hooker resigned his post abruptly, Meade was assigned command of the Army of the Potomac (28 Jun 1863), and three days later his army found itself engaged at Gettysburg. He has been praised for his handling of troops on the defensive at Gettysburg, and criticized for failing to pursue the beaten Confederates in the aftermath of the battle. Although he retained his command when Ulysses S Grant came E in the spring of 1864, Grant took effective operational control of the army and Meade performed loyally in a difficult situation. After the war, he commanded the army's Division of the Atlantic, with a brief interruption to command the then military district that included Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. He died of complications from a wound he sustained during the Peninsula campaign of 1862. His blunt, often intemperate manner did not endear him to his fellow officers, but he gained a reputation as a serviceable soldier. |
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