Meade

The Price of Command, 1863-1865

John G. Selby

• Publisher: The Kent State University Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781631013270
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Amerikanische Bürgerkriegsgeschichte

George Gordon Meade has not been treated kindly by history. Victorious at Gettysburg, the biggest battle ofthe American Civil War, Meade was the longest-serving commander of the Army of the Potomac, leading his army through the brutal Overland Campaign and on to the surrender of Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. Serving alongside his new superior, Ulysses S. Grant, in the last year of the war, his role has been overshadowed by the popular Grant. This first full-length study of Meade's two-year tenure as commander of the Army of the Potomac brings him out of Grant's shadow and into focus as one of the top three Union generals of the war.

John G. Selby portrays a general bestride a large army he could manage well and a treacherous political environment he neither fully understood nor cared to engage. Meade's time as commander began on a high note withthe victory at Gettysburg, but when he failed to fight Lee's retreating army that July and into the fall of 1863, the political knives came out. Meade spent the winter of 1863-64 struggling to retain his job while the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War sought to have him dismissed. Meade offered to resign, but Grant told him to keep his job. Together, they managed the Overland Campaign and the initial attacks on Petersburg and Richmond in 1864.

By basing his study on the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, original Meade letters, and the letters, diaries, journals, and reminiscences of contemporaries, Selby demonstrates that Meade was a much more active, thoughtful, and enterprising commander than has been assumed. This sensitive and reflective man accepted a position that was as political as it was military, despite knowing that the political dimensions of the job might ultimately destroy what he valued the most, his reputation.

Index

Page numbers in italics indicate maps.

Adams, John Quincy, 1

Alexandria, 291

Amelia Court House, 281, 282

Amissville, 91

Anderson, George T., 141

Anderson, Richard, 143; Appomattox Campaign, 281, 282–83; Drewry’s Bluff, 181; march to Cold Harbor, 198; near Guiney Bridge, 185; Spotsylvania Court House, 152, 155

Anderson’s Mill, 183

Anna River. See North Anna River; South Anna River

Anthony, Henry, 241

Antietam, Battle of, 8

Appomattox Campaign, 274; Appomattox Court House, 286–87; Appomattox Station, 284–85; Confederate offensive at Petersburg, 273; Farmville to Cumberland Church, 284; Five Forks, 273, 275–76; Grant’s orders, 271–72; Grant’s plans, 269; High Bridge, 282; Jetersville, 282–83; Lee’s surrender, 286–87; letters regarding surrender, 284, 285–86, 286–87; Lewis Farm, 272; Little Sailor’s Creek, 282–83; meeting with commanders prior to, 269; race to Burkeville Junction, 280–81; Union assault on Petersburg, 277–79; Union movement begins, 272

Appomattox Court House, 285, 287

Appomattox Station, 284–85

Armstrong Mills, 267

Army of Northern Virginia, 59, 62, 63; 14th South Carolina, 187; Alabama Brigade, 6; Archer’s brigade, 27; Barksdale’s Mississippians, 43; Breckinridge’s division, 194, 195; Cooke’s brigade, 249; Downsville Line of, 73; eve of Gettysburg, 18–19, 21–22, 24; Ewell’s Corps, 281, 282; First Confederate Engineers, 233; Hill’s division, 21; Hood’s division, 8, 42; Imboden’s Northwest Brigade, 62, 96; Johnson’s brigades, 44, 216, 273; Lane’s brigade, 249; Law’s brigade, 40, 155; MacRae’s brigade, 249; Mahone’s division, 159, 162, 227, 228, 229, 247, 248, 260, 281; march to Culpeper, 81, 82; Pegram’s brigade, 195, 197; Pickett’s division, 273, 275; Ramseur’s brigade, 140; retreat after Gettysburg, 59, 62, 63, 76; Rodes’s division, 196; Spotsylvania, 154; Wilcox’s brigade, 43. See also specific battles and commanders

Army of Northern Virginia, 1st Corps (Longstreet, Anderson), 181; Beaver Pond Creek, 281; collapse of, 282; Gettysburg, 21, 40; march past Union division, 185; march to Cold Harbo...