The son of a wealthy merchant who was financially ruined by his dedication to Spain during the Napoleonic Wars, George Gordon Meade was born in Cadiz, Spain, 31 December 1815, but raised in Philadelphia. After attending Mount Hope Institution in Baltimore, he attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated nineteenth in a class of fifty-six in 1835. Prior to the Civil War, Meade served in a Corps of Topographical Engineers, as well as in Mexico and Florida.
Meade was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on 31 August 1861 at the insistence of Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin, and was given a brigade of Pennsylvania infantry. Meade and his brigade joined the Army of the Potomac in the spring of 1862 during the Peninsula campaign, where he was severely wounded twice during the battle of Glendale. Upon recovering from his wound he led his brigade at the battles of Second Bull Run and South Mountain, and at Antietam led a division of Hooker's First Corps. Newly appointed a major general of volunteers, Meade led his Third Division at Fredericksburg, which was the only Federal unit to successfully penetrate the confederate line. A few days later he was appointed to command the Fifth Corps, which he led at the battle of Chancellorsville.
On 28 June 1863 Meade was given command of the Army of the Potomac, which was then in pursuit of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia which was then making its way through Maryland into Pennsylvania. Three days later Meade and his army were engaged in the largest battle ever fought on the North American continent -- the battle of Gettysburg. On 7 July 1863 Meade was promoted to brigadier general in the Regular Army, to date from 3 July. Although criticized for not pursuing Lee's army after the battle of Gettysburg, Meade was given the thanks of Congress by resolution 28 January 1864.
Following his appointment to lieutenant general and General in Chief, Ulysses S. Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, of which Meade retained command throughout the remainder of the war. Meade was rewarded with the rank of major general in the Regular Army, only after William T. Sherman and Phillip Sheridan, the latter Meade's subordinate, had been appointed.
After the war Meade held various department commands and was in charge of the Military Division of the Atlantic, headquartered at Philadelphia. He died of pneumonia at his home, on 6 November 1872. He was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.
Visit our Changing
Exhibits Gallery!
Return to Civil War
Library and Museum Home Page!