George Meade: Lighthouse Builder Given the Army 3 Days Before Gettysburg

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George Gordon Meade was born in 1815 in Cadiz, Spain, to a merchant family ruined by its support of the Spanish government during the Peninsular War. Sent to West Point because it was free, he collected 168 demerits, graduated 19th of 56 in 1835, served in the Second Seminole War and resigned to work as a civil engineer. An 1842 law pushed him back into the Army's topographical engineers, where he built lighthouses including Barnegat, Absecon and Cape May in New Jersey and Sombrero Key in Florida, and designed a hydraulic lamp adopted nationwide.

Wounded at Glendale in 1862, Meade broke Stonewall Jackson's line at Fredericksburg through a swampy gap, then was awakened on June 28, 1863, and handed command of the Army of the Potomac three days before Gettysburg. His fishhook line used interior lines to shift troops, and his headquarters at the Leister house was battered during the barrage before Pickett's Charge. Afterward, Lincoln and Halleck faulted him for letting Lee cross the Potomac, Dan Sickles attacked him before Congress, and under Grant a press agreement credited Meade only with defeats.

Meade's temper earned him the nickname Old Snapping Turtle.
He received a gold-mounted sword from Philadelphia citizens for his actions at Monterrey.
Sixteen horses tied outside the Leister house were killed in the July 3 barrage.
He clashed with Philip Sheridan over using cavalry for scouting rather than independent raids.
His face appeared on the 1890 $1,000 Treasury note known as the Grand Watermelon, and the head of his horse Old Baldy is preserved in Philadelphia.

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