Happy Birthday General Meade!

Darn it! I intended to post this earlier, but forgot until reminded by the Gettysburg Daily entry for today.

 

A Foggy Day at Gettysburg

Earlier this week  I posted entries for Meade’s Equestrian statue and the NPS wayside at Gettysburg.  Meade might not have been a Napoleon, but he was certainly no McClellan.  I always felt history was not fair to him regarding the follow up after Gettysburg.  Opportunities were lost, to be sure, but place it in context.  Having Meade assume command of the Army of the Potomac on June 28, 1863 was somewhat like elevating the batting coach to the manager’s spot for game 1 of the World Series.  On July 1,  he “rode to the sound of the guns,” and made a fateful decision to stand and fight. 

Some historians have made hay over the friction between Grant and Meade during the final half of the war.  However, consider that on several occasions during the Overland Campaign and the Petersburg Siege, Grant was reluctant to step away from the field for any long period of time, partly because someone OTHER than Meade would step up with overall control of operations against the Army of Northern Virginia. 

George Gordon Meade, born on this day in 1815 in Cadiz, Spain.