Meade at Gettysburg, A Study in Command, by Kent Masterson Brown

Matt McKeon

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General George "Snapping Turtle" Meade gets his due in this well written, carefully researched account of the two weeks in 1863 when Meade was given command of the Army of the Potomac, defeated Lee at Gettysburg and pursued him to Williamsport, and back into Virginia.

Brown, as we saw in "Retreat From Gettysburg" emphasizes the unglamorous, but utterly necessary business of supplying troops and animals with rations, forage, ammunition, shoes, medical care and well as establishing the network of communications and intelligence gathering.

The book focuses on Meade's actions, and what he knew and when. Unlike the armchair historian, Meade, and any Civil War general's knowledge of the enemy's location, movements and intensions were highly limited.
 

Matt McKeon

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Brown considers Gettysburg a completely improvised battle on the Union's part. Meade wanted to fight at the strong Pipe Creek line. The clash of Buford's cavalry, supported by an advance guard of Reynolds and Howards committed the army to battle north of Gettysburg. Reynolds was not intended to start a general engagement that far from the rest of the army, but after he was killed in the early moments of the fighting, events moved at their own momentum.

Meade quickly abandoned his own plan and moved troops to Gettysburg. While we all loved the bearded general in the movie growling about "good ground," its advantages were not apparent to the men fighting on it.

The villain of the battle in Daniel Sickles, who disobeyed orders to push Third Corps a quarter mile from the rest of the army, while not communicating his movements.
 

Matt McKeon

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Meade again improvises a response to Longstreet's crushing July 2nd attack, stripping the rest of the line for troops to support his flank and hurrying the men still marching to the battlefield to the crisis point.

He also understood that the Confederate attack would likely be on the center on July 3rd and made preparations, although his HQ coming under heavy cannon fire, he had to move, putting himself out of tactical control of the battle.
 

Matt McKeon

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Meade's reputation comes under criticism because of his failure to "bag" Lee after Gettysburg. Brown lays out the battle damage, lack of forage, ammunition and rations that Meade had to contend with, and approves of Meade's decision not to attack Lee on July 13th, being unwilling to launch hopeless attacks on prepared entrenchments. Brown strongly rebuts criticism of Lee and argues against Guelzo's "The Last Invasion." in particular.

Very interesting.
 

jgoodguy

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Meade's reputation comes under criticism because of his failure to "bag" Lee after Gettysburg. Brown lays out the battle damage, lack of forage, ammunition and rations that Meade had to contend with, and approves of Meade's decision not to attack Lee on July 13th, being unwilling to launch hopeless attacks on prepared entrenchments. Brown strongly rebuts criticism of Lee and argues against Guelzo's "The Last Invasion." in particular.

Very interesting.
I believe that the weather was also against Meade.
IMHO Meade was wise not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
With only 3 days in command, Meade organized the first major defeat of Lee.
 

Matt McKeon

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I believe that the weather was also against Meade.
IMHO Meade was wise not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
With only 3 days in command, Meade organized the first major defeat of Lee.
That's a point that Brown(and Meade) makes, that Lee getting beaten, a major morale and tactical victory, would be canceled by a bloody repulse if the AoP made a hopeless attack.
 

jgoodguy

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A final point was that Meade was in command of the AOP until the end of the war. Maybe not the general Lincoln needed/wanted to end the war, but competent.
 

diane

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Meade is one of my favorites. He was the first Union general Lee respected, too. He went toward Gettysburg believing Hooker would be his opponent and he had taken his measure of Hooker - that general could be beaten. When word came the Union had yet again switched generals, this time Meade, everyone laughed except Lee. He knew Meade. "He will not make a mistake before me," said Lee, "and I had better not make one before him!"
 

jgoodguy

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Meade is one of my favorites. He was the first Union general Lee respected, too. He went toward Gettysburg believing Hooker would be his opponent and he had taken his measure of Hooker - that general could be beaten. When word came the Union had yet again switched generals, this time Meade, everyone laughed except Lee. He knew Meade. "He will not make a mistake before me," said Lee, "and I had better not make one before him!"
IMHO Hooker could have beaten Lee had he not been concussed by a near artillery hit and refused to yield command.

I was disappointed to learn that the term 'hooker" preceded him.
 

diane

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Hooker was indeed knocked for a row of ash cans at Chancellorsville, and he wasn't himself for some time thereafter. Post-concussion syndrome, maybe. He was a better general than popular history has made him out to be but, very importantly, Lee did not respect him. George Meade, he did. It was a real cobra-mongoose match-up then.

I've always thought Grant owed a lot to Meade, who was definitely a grumpy old man (especially with Sheridan stepping on his head all the time) but he also knew Grant needed a solid second fiddle. He was steady and loyal, and so was his army. Politicans and others not on the ground may have been angry Meade didn't grind Lee like a sack of flour when he appeared to have the chance, but his army never had a word of criticism for him there. The condition of the troops, the mud, the flood, the weather - Meade made the right decision. He knew Lee very well - that general was quite liable to take the AoP with him when he went down!
 

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They were stationed together sometime during their careers and played each other in chest... Meade and Lee knew each others strategic and tactical mind sets... I can not find anyone ever try to research their time together...
 

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They were stationed together sometime during their careers and played each other in chest... Meade and Lee knew each others strategic and tactical mind sets... I can not find anyone ever try to research their time together...
Where were they stationed togethes?
 

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He was a master of Pharlogy... ever hear of such a word... This is a short article about Meade building Lighthouse along the east coast and many are still standing today... article shows his innovative mind...


snip...

Pharology is the scientific study of lighthouses and signal lights, their construction and illumination. The variation pharonology is occasionally attested. Those who study or are enthused by lighthouses are known as pharologists.

snip...

With his unchanging, somber expression and cool head, Meade anticipated Robert E. Lee’s moves, made critical tactical decisions and defeated the Confederate forces at Gettysburg. His Union victory was celebrated as the turning point of the war and took many of his critics by surprise, though it shouldn’t have. Meade possessed an uncanny ability to logically assess challenging situations and make sound decisions.
 
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5fish

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Where were they stationed togethes?
I figured it out the fought together in the Mexican-American War... both were engineers and Meade, Corps of Topographical Engineers.

  • In 1842, George G. Meade returned to the army as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers.
  • George G. Meade served in the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848) and was brevetted to first lieutenant for gallant conduct at the Battle of Monterrey.
They served on General Scotts staff together...

. This failed to materialize and he re-enlisted in the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1842. Meade served as a staff officer for various field generals during the Mexican-American War and oversaw a variety of coastal survey and construction projects before and afterward
 

diane

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I figured it out the fought together in the Mexican-American War... both were engineers and Meade, Corps of Topographical Engineers.

  • In 1842, George G. Meade returned to the army as a second lieutenant in the Corps of Topographical Engineers.
  • George G. Meade served in the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848) and was brevetted to first lieutenant for gallant conduct at the Battle of Monterrey.
They served on General Scotts staff together...

. This failed to materialize and he re-enlisted in the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers in 1842. Meade served as a staff officer for various field generals during the Mexican-American War and oversaw a variety of coastal survey and construction projects before and afterward
Scott caused one of those interesting what-ifs, by the way. At Veracruz, he sent his engineers in to assess American fortifications - their little boat came under extremely heavy fire from the batteries at the fort. Very dicey ride! The boatload of engineers was Lee, Meade, McClellan, Johnston and Beauregard!
 

jgoodguy

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Scott caused one of those interesting what-ifs, by the way. At Veracruz, he sent his engineers in to assess American fortifications - their little boat came under extremely heavy fire from the batteries at the fort. Very dicey ride! The boatload of engineers was Lee, Meade, McClellan, Johnston and Beauregard!
Short Civil War
 

diane

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You do kind of wonder about things like that. All the crucial generals of the CW, both sides, piled into a little row boat...sunk to the bottom of Veracruz Bay by a Mexican cannon ball! Wonder who that would have cleared the way for.
 

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Lee was originally on Gen Wool's staff, and was transferred to Winfield Scott's when Scott began his campaign for Central Mexico. He was in that boat to supervise the building of batteries and other works at Veracruz. Winfield Scott was very attached to fellow Virginian Lee and strongly supported his career - think he became lieutenant colonel during that war.

Meade, as pointed out earlier, was the lighthouse guy! He was another reluctant soldier - if it had been up to him he would have spent his life building and maintaining them. He was the one who caught the hole in the Confederate line at Fredericksburg and exploited it to the max. Both A P Hill and Jeb Stuart had observed the gap but both believed the terrain too difficult for a Union attack. Meade, who specialized in putting lighthouses on the most inhospitable places on earth, knew his troops could get in - which they did. Lee did not forget commanders like that.
 
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