Please click to return to Thoughts About Meade page.

The following appeared on Thursday, July 4, 2002 in the Cape May Star & Wave.

Civil War hero General George G. Meade had close ties to Cape May area!
By R.E. HEINLY, Cape May Star and Wave

As portrayed by living history interpreter Dr. Andrew Waskie, Union Civil War hero General George G. Meade of Philadelphia returned to the Jersey shore recently to speak to the Civil War Round Table of Cape May County. As, Waskie/Meade explained, he and his family had often resorted to Cape May before, during, and after the war, including several memorable stays at Congress Hall. Before the war, in the early 1850s, as first a civilian and then a military engineer, Meade supervised the construction of the Barnegat, Absecon and Cape May lighthouses. Duties surveying and erecting lighthouses in the Great Lakes region prevented Meade from on-the-spot supervision of the completion of the current Cape May Lighthouse 1859). Surveying and engineering were specialties of Meade, as was lighthouse construction, as he also  supervised the erection of screw pile types in the Florida Keys and one in the  Delaware Bay at Brandywine Shoal. This latter one was replaced by the current  structure in 1914.

Dr. Waskie is an expert in languages, as well as history and is currently on the faculty of Temple University as well as an adjunct professor at Rider University and Holy Family College. He is an experienced tour guide, interpreter, and author on the Civil War and Philadelphia. In addition to helping found the General Meade Society of Philadelphia, he serves on the board of directors of the Grand Army of the Republic Civil War Museum and Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, and the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association (G.B.P.A.).

Waskie's portrayal of Meade captured not only the historical facts of his career, but the general's persona and spirit as well. Meade was a typical upper class Victorian aristocrat, a member of one of Philadelphia's leading families. Waskie's Meade is educated and cultured, proud and patriotic, humorous and witty, in every way a Victorian gentleman, with just the right amount of `noblesse oblige' and impatience with those of less perception and ability.

The latter characteristic is exacerbated by an only partially suppressed Irish temper.

Waskie enthralled his knowledgeable audience with details of the general's life and his insights into history from Meade's perspective. His blend of personality and expertise made it seem Meade was actually present. He detailed his early career in the Seminole and Mexican Wars. Meade used his topographical expertise to establish the borders between Texas and Louisiana and Maine and Canada during the 1840.

One of Pennsylvania's leading military figures during the Civil War along with Generals John Reynolds and Winfield Scott Hancock, Meade saw heroic service during the Peninsula Campaign at Mechanicsville and Gaines' Mills and during the Seven Days Battles. He was severely wounded at Glendale, from which he never recovered. The complications led to his untimely death from pneumonia in 1872. He also played a prominent role in the battles of Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg and his Army of the Potomac surrounded Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, leading to his surrender in April of 1865.

General George G. Meade is most famed as the commanding general of the victorious Union army at Gettysburg, considered the turning point of the war by many historians and most of the public. In command of the Army of the Potomac for only a few days he bested Lee, who had been an undefeated military demi-God until that battle. Interestingly, Meade and Lee were old comrades and tent mates from Mexican War days. Waskie skillfully defended Meade from charges he was too cautions in following up his Gettysburg victory and capturing Lee's army, mainly by citing the proven folly of the type of frontal assault against entrenched defenders that would have been required to do so. If Pickett's charge at Gettysburg had not been enough proof of this, Grant's later attack at Cold Harbor was, Meade reminded his audience.

While Meade stayed in command of the Army of the Potomac until the war's end, General U.S. Grant was placed above him as overall commander of all Union armies. Waskie did an excellent job of only thinly masking Meade's disdain for Grant's tactics and abilities and resentment for his eclipsing of his public fame and renown. He noted Grant's sorry post-war record as President in doing so. After the war Meade remained in the Army engaging in a life of civic leadership in Philadelphia, including engineering Fairmount Park, the largest urban park in the nation.

Although George Meade in fact died and was buried in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery in 1872, Dr. Andrew Waskie skillfully brought him to life for his appreciative audience at the Civil War Round Table of Cape May County.