Rediscovering General Meade: The Man Who Won at the Battle of Gettysburg

How George Meade’s Command at Gettysburg Defies the Myths That History Repeated

Jun 28, 2025

∙ Paid

This is the book cover for “Meade at Gettysburg, A Study in Command” by Kent Masterson Brown. The cover background image is a warm muted brown sepia image of a tent in a field environment with a center support pole mid image. A wooden chair is in mid-image. Standing to the right is a colorized image of Major General George Meade in his blue uniform and hat. His uniform jacket has two columns of buttons each, black belt with a large rectangular gold color buckle. Meade has black riding boots, white gloves, white neck scarf and appears to be resting his left hand on top of a sword. The title of the book is in bold lettering in the upper left quadrant of the cover with “Meade” in black and beneath in slightly smaller letters in red “at GETTYSBURG” and below that in smaller grey block letters are “A STUDY IN COMMAND” and finally below that in black bold letter is the author’s name KENT MASTERSON BROWN” — (University of North Carolina Press, 2021, 488 pages)

“Rarely has a new commander been presented with such daunting and complex issues on his first day in command as was George Meade.”
― Kent Masterson Brown, Meade at Gettysburg: A Study in Command

Frederick, Maryland, June 28, 1863, about 3 a.m.

Major General George Gordon Meade, then commanding the Union Army’s V Corps (“5^th” Corps), was awakened by LtCol James A. Hardee, President Lincoln’s official courier, with orders directing him to take command of the winless Army of the Potomac in relief of MajGen Joseph Hooker. Meade would be the 4^thcommander of the army in less than 2 years - command of the army was not career enhancing. When Meade asked if he could decline the command, the courier replied “no” in accordance with the President’s expectation that Meade would make such a request. Meade responded, “Well, I’ve been tried and condemned without a hearing, and I suppose I shall have to go to execution…” Shortly there after, Meade rode off to meet with Hooker and assumed control of an army that was scattered, in motion, and hunting Lee’s forces, which had once again crossed into the North seeking a decisive battle and war-turning strategic victory. Some 72 hours later, Meade would lead the Union in its first victory over the rebels at Gettysburg, July 1-3, in what remains the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on the North American continent.

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