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THE CHARACTER OF GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE

Anecdotes and Observations

Colonel Theodore Lyman served on General Meade's staff as his "Volunteer Aide" (senior aide-de-camp) from September 1863 through the end of the Civil War. In that capacity he observed and came to know Meade better than anyone else save Meade's immediate family. His letters to his wife, Elizabeth Russell Lyman, were later edited and published as Meade's Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman, From the Wilderness to Appomattox (Boston, 1922)

1) Meade's coolness under fire, and his reputation as a storyteller
From Theodore Lyman’s letter to his wife, Elizabeth Russell Lyman, September 11, 1863:

They say that General Meade is an extremely cool man. At Gettysburg he was in a little wooden house, when the hot fire began. The shells flew very thick and close, and his Staff, who were outside, got under the lee of the house and sat down on the grass. As they sat there, out came General Meade, who, seeing them under such a slender protection against cannon-balls, began to laugh, and said, "That now reminds me of a feller at the Battle of Buena Vista, who, having got behind a wagon, during a severe cannonade, was there found by General Taylor. 'Wall Gin’ral,' said he, looking rather sheepish, 'this ain’t much protection, but it kinder feels as it was.'"

As a point to the Chief’s anecdote, a spherical case came through the house at that instant, exploded in their circle, and wounded Colonel Dickinson.

2) Meade's sense of truthfulness and duty
From Theodore Lyman’s letter to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, September 29, 1863:

My Chief, though he expressly declares that he is not Napoleon, is a thorough soldier, and a mighty clear-headed man; and one who does not move unless he knows where and how many his men are, where and how many his enemy’s men are, and what sort of country he has to go through.

I never saw a man in my life who was so characterized by straightforward truthfulness as he is. He will pitch into himself in a moment, if he thinks he has done wrong; and woe to those, no matter who they think they are, who do not do right! "Sir, it was your duty and you haven't done it; now go back and do it at once," he will suddenly remark to some astonished general, who thinks himself no small beer.

3) "Steam-Engine Meade"
From Theodore Lyman’s letter to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, October 23, 1863:

Jubal Early, the orderly, poked his head into the tent saying "Colonel Lyman, the General will have breakfast at seven" (which was an hour earlier than he had said the night before). As soon as I sat down, says the General, "I am going to Washington: would you like to go?" In much haste I ran, and crammed my best coat, pantaloons, shoes, sash, gauntlets and brushes into my big saddle-bags. Thereupon we speedily got on horseback and with little delay rode twelve miles, briskly, to Gainesville, whither the railroad comes. The Chief stepped into a little room, used as a telegraph office, and, quicker than winking, he stood, arrayed only in his undergarments; then, before, almost, I could get my coat off, he had put on a pair of shoes, a new coat, and an elegant pair of trousers! "Now then, Lyman, are you ready? Where’s Major-General Humphreys? Humphreys is always late! Come, come along, the train is going to start!"

You should have seen me, the unfortunate Aide—my coat unbuttoned, my shoestrings loose; on one arm my saddle-bags, on the other my sword, sash, etc., etc., hastening after the steam-engine Meade!

4) Meade the gentleman [a nice anecdote about a dinner party on October 24, 1863, one day before the date of the Meade Memorial Dinner at the Union League]
From Theodore Lyman’s letter to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, October 25, 1863:
We went to Willard's after the pow-wow with the President, and got a very good dinner, except for poor General Meade, who was bored to death and driven out of all peace of mind, by dirty politicians who kept coming up and saying, "Ah, General Meade, I believe; perhaps you do not recollect meeting me in the year 1831, on a Mississippi steamboat? How do you do, sir? What move do you propose to execute next? Have you men enough, sir? What are the intentions of Lee, sir? How are the prospects of the rebellion, sir? Do you look upon it as essentially crushed, sir? Or do you think it may still rear its head against our noble Union, sir?" etc., etc.

All of which the poor Chief would answer with plaintive courtesy, endeavoring to snatch a mouthful of chicken the whole while, while the obscure aides-de-camp were piling in all kinds of delicacies.

5) "The Extraordinary Moral Courage of General Meade": The Mine Run Affair, November 29-30, 1863

Meade's army had followed Lee's retreating forces southward and deep into the heart if Virginia, hoping to draw them into a fight. In late November, as Lee's forces were preoccupied in digging themselves into field fortifications near Mine Run, General Gouverneur Kemble Warren told Meade of his plan to attack their exposed far left flank; Meade placed two Third Corps divisions at Warren's disposal and ordered Warren to attack whenever ready. Warren assembled his forces on the night of November 29-30; back at Headquarters, Meade and his aides waited for the fighting to commence. But at daybreak, just as shelling began, Meade received word from Warren that Lee's forces were far more heavily fortified than he had anticipated. Meade immediately ordered Warren’s troops to cease firing and pull back.

From Theodore Lyman’s letter to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, November 30, 1863:
We tried to take it all philosophically, but it was hard, very hard. Most of all for General Meade and Major-General Humphreys, who really took it admirably, for both of them have excellent tempers of their own, which, on occasions, burst forth, like twelve-pounder spherical case.

The men and guns stood ready; the Chief had only to snap his fingers, and that night would probably have seen ten thousand wretched, mangled creatures, lying on those long slopes, exposed to the bitter cold, and out of reach of all help. Then people would have said, "He was unsuccessful; but then he tried hard, and did not get out."

But wherever the fault lies, I shall always be astonished at the extraordinary moral courage of General Meade, which enabled him to order a retreat, when his knowledge, as an engineer and a soldier, showed that an attack would be a blunder.

6) "I have acted from a higher sense of duty": Meade on what happened at Mine Run
General Mead outlined his thoughts about what transpired at Mine Run in this letter to his wife, Margaretta Sergeant Meade, December 2, 1863

If I had thought there was any reasonable degree of probability of success, I would have attacked. I did not think so; on the contrary, I believed it might result in a useless and criminal slaughter of brave men, and might result in serious disaster to the army. I determined not to attack, no other movements were practicable, and I withdrew. I assumed to myself all the responsibility.

It was my deliberate judgment that I ought not to attack; I acted on that judgment, and I am willing to stand by it at all hazards. I would rather be ignominiously dismissed, and suffer anything, than knowingly and willfully have thousands of brave men slaughtered for nothing.

I feel of course greatly disappointed; a little more good fortune, and I should have met with brilliant success. As it is, my conscience is clear. I did the best I

There will be a great howl all over the country. Letter writers and politicians will denounce me. It will be proved as clear as the light of day, that an attack was perfectly practicable, and that everyone, except myself, in the army, particularly the soldiers, was dying for an attack, and that I had some mysterious object in view, either in connection with politics, or stock-jobbing, or something else about as foreign to my thoughts, and finally the Administration will be obliged to yield to popular clamor and discard me.

For all this I am prepared, fortified as I said before by a clear conscience, and the conviction that I have acted from a higher sense of duty, to myself as a soldier, to my men as their general, and to my country and its cause, as the agent having its vital interests solemnly entrusted to me, which I have no right wantonly to play with and to jeopardize, either for my own personal benefit, or to satisfy the demands of popular clamor, or interested politicians.

7) What makes a military leader "great"?
Theodore Lyman clearly had Meade-his beloved "Chief"-in mind when he described the qualities that make a military leader "great":

There is a good reason why great soldiers should be so rare that generations pass without producing a single one. In war there is a critical instant—a night—perhaps only half an hour—when everything culminates. A great soldier is the military genius who recognizes this instant and acts upon it, neither precipitating nor postponing the critical moment.

A great solider must have, in addition to all useful traits of intellect, a courage unmoved by the greatest danger, and cool under every emergency, and the quickness of lightning, not only in conceiving, but in enforcing an order.