Major General George Gordon Meade
Commanding, Army of the Potomac

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The monument to Major General George Meade is south of Gettysburg on Cemetery Ridge. see map

The monument of General Meade seated on his horse, Old Baldy, was created by Henry K. Bush-Brown, who also created the equestrian statues of Generals Reynolds and Sedgwick at Gettysburg as well as the bust of Lincoln on the Lincoln Speech Memorial.

From the tablet on the right side of the monument:

Major General George Gordon Meade
United States Army
Commander of the Army of the Potomac
Born-December 31 1815 Died-November 6 1872

From the tablet on the left side of the monument:

Cadet U.S.M.A. Sept 1,1831; Brevet Second Lieut. 3d U.S. Artillery July 1, 1835; Second Lieut. December 31, 1835; Resigned and honorably discharged October 26, 1836; Second Lieut. Topographical Engineers May 19, 1842; First Lieut. August 4, 1851; Captain May 19, 1856; "For fourteen years continuous service" Major July 18, 1862 (Merged into Corps of Engineers March 3, 1863); Vacated commission July 3, 1863 Brig.-General U.S. Army July 3, 1863; Major General August 18, 1864. Brevetted First Lieut. U.S. Army September 23, 1846, "For Gallant Conduct in the Several Conflicts at Monterey, Mexico," Brig.-General U.S. Volunteers August 31, 1861; Major-General November 29, 1862; Vacated commission in volunteer service December 6, 1864. The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled resolved (joint resolution approved January 28, 1864) "That the gratitude of the American people and the thanks of their representatives in Congress are due, and are hereby tendered ** To Major-General George G. Meade ** and the officers and soldiers of that army (Army of the Potomac) for the skill and heroic valor which at Gettysburg repulsed, defeated, and drove back, broken and dispirited, beyond the Rappahannock, the veteran army of the rebellion.

Old Baldy was a cavalry mount ridden by General David Hunter at the Battle of Bull Run. Despite being wounded there, he returned to service, where he was purchased by Meade in fall of 1861.

Meade rode Old Baldy at Gettysburg, where the horse was wounded on July 2nd by a ball that entered his stomach after passing through Meade's trouser leg and within a half inch of his thigh. Old Baldy again survived, but by August of 1864 and after another wound he was considered unfit for service, and Meade sent him back to Philadelphia for a well-deserved retirement. Old Baldy did so well, however, that Meade resumed riding him after the war, and the horse survived the general by ten years, taking part in Meade's funeral procession as the riderless horse. He died in 1882.

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General George Meade monument at Gettysburg

View enlargement of statue of Major General George Meade

George Gordon Meade was born in Cadiz, Spain, on December 31, 1815, where his father was serving as an agent of the United States Navy. He grew up in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, and graduated from West Point in 1835.

He served for a time in Florida and Massachusetts, then resigned in 1836 to go into civil engineering. In 1842 he rejoined the army's topographical engineers. Other than his service in the Mexican War, he spent the next eighteen years in coastal engineering, doing surveys and building lighthouses and breakwaters.

With the coming of the Civil War Pennsylvania's Governor Curtin gave Meade command of a brigade of volunteers. He was twice wounded at Glendale in the Peninsula Campaign. In September of 1862 he returned to command the division of Pennsylvania Reserves at South Mountain. He took over the 1st Corps at Antietam when Hooker was wounded, then was given the 5th Corps in time for Chancellorsville.

On June 28, 1863 as the Army of the Potomac was in pursuit of Lee's army in its invasion of Pennsylvania, Meade was surprised by a late night visit which unexpectedly gave him command of the Army of the Potomac.

Meade took over the army under the worst possible circumstances. In the midst of an invasion of the north and less than three days before the greatest battle of the war, he was responsible for an army whose dispositions and plans were unknown to him and a staff that were not always allies. But with Gettysburg he gave the Army of the Potomac its greatest victory to date, and possibly in all of the war. It was a creditable performance under the best of conditions, much less those under which Meade was forced to operate.

Nevertheless Washington was unhappy that the victory was not more complete and Meade's pursuit of Lee was not more robust. The Bristoe and Mine Run campaigns in the remainder of 1863 were also inconclusive, and in March of 1864 when Grant was given command of all Union armies he decided to make his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac.

Meade offered to resign, but Grant kept him on. Nevertheless, from that point it was Grant's army, and Meade was not even present when Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House.

After the war Meade was the fourth highest ranking officer in the U.S. army, and commanded the Military Division of the Atlantic and the Departments of the East and South. He died at Philadelphia in November of 1872 of complications from his wounds, and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery.

Major General George Gordon Meade Commanding, Army of the Potomac

Major General George Gordon Meade
Commanding, Army of the Potomac