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The fifth commander of the Army of the Potomac was
Major-General George Gordon Meade, then in command of the Fifth Corps.
This officer was born in
Cadiz, Spain, in December, 1815, and was consequently forty-six years old. He graduated at
West Point in 1835, and was assigned to the artillery arm of the service.
A year afterward he resigned from the army, but after six years was reappointed second lieutenant of the
Topographical Engineers, and was in
Mexico on
General Patterson's staff.
Meade's father served as a private soldier in the
Pennsylvania troops to suppress the “Whisky Insurrection” in
western Pennsylvania, and therefore was under
General Lee's father, who commanded the forces raised for that purpose.
He was afterward a merchant, a shipowner, and a navy agent in
Cadiz, but shortly after his son's birth returned to the
United States.
In justice to this officer, it may be said that he protested against being placed in command of an army that had been looking toward
Reynolds as
Hooker's successor, but, loyal to authority, he assumed the command in obedience to orders.
His position was environed with difficulties, for he was ignorant of
Hooker's plans.
Awakened from sleep by
General Hardee, the War Department messenger, he had not much time to get any knowledge of them from
Hooker, while a battle in the next few days could not be avoided.
He determined to continue the move northward through
Maryland into
Pennsylvania, and force
Lee to give battle before he could cross the
Susquehanna.
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After two days march, he received information that
Lee was concentrating and coming toward him, and he at once began to prepare the line of
Pipe Creek to await his approach and fight a defensive battle.
On the night of June 30th his headquarters and reserve artillery were at
Taneytown; the First Corps, at
Marsh Creek, six miles from
Longstreet and
Hill at
Cashtown; the Eleventh Corps, at Emmittsburg; Third, at
Bridgeport; Twelfth, at Littletown; Second, at
Uniontown; Fifth, at
Union Mill; Sixth, at
Winchester, Md., with
Gregg's cavalry, that being his extreme right.
Kilpatrick's cavalry division was at
Hanover, Pa., while
Buford's cavalry guarded his left.
Lee was rapidly concentrating.
Longstreet and
Hill were then near
Cashtown,
Hill's advance (
Heth's division) being seven miles from
Gettysburg, and
Ewell at Heidelburg, nine miles away.
Had
Lee known of the defensive position at
Gettysburg, he could have easily massed his whole army on July 1st there; but he was in no hurry to precipitate a battle, and would have preferred to fight at some point not so far from his base.
On the 30th
Pettigrew, commanding a brigade of
Heth's division,
Hill's corps, was directed to march to
Gettysburg to get shoes for the barefooted men of the division, but returned the same evening without them and reported that
Gettysburg was occupied by the
Federal cavalry, and that drums were heard beating on the other side of the town.
So
Heth told
Hill if he had no objection, he would take his whole division there the next day, July 1st, and “get the shoes,” to which
Hill replied, “None in the world.”
Buford, with his cavalry division, reached
Gettysburg on the day
Pettigrew made his visit, and threw out his pickets toward
Cashtown and
Hunterstown.
In an order of march for July 1st,
Meade, not knowing
Lee was so near, directed the First and Eleventh Corps, under that excellent
officer Reynolds, to
Gettysburg; Third, to Emmittsburg; Second,
Taneytown; Fifth,
Hanover; Twelfth to
Two Taverns; while the Sixth was to remain at
Manchester, thirty-four miles from
Gettysburg, and await orders.
Heth, after his coveted shoes, reached
McPherson's
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Heights, one mile west of
Gettysburg, at 9 A. M. on July 1st, deployed two brigades on either side of the road, and advanced on the town.
Promptly the few sputtering shots which first announced the skirmish line's opening told him that
Buford's dismounted cavalry were blocking the way; and the great struggle which was to determine, like
Waterloo, the fate of a continent, and whether there should be one or two republics on this continent, had commenced.
Precipitance was neither desired by
Meade nor
Lee, but “shoes” took command that day, and opened a contest which drew in its bloody embrace one hundred and seventy thousand men. For
Reynolds, hearing
Buford's guns, hastened to him with the First Corps,
Wadsworth's division leading.
Hill, who had followed
Heth with
Pender's division, sent it rapidly to his support, while the Eleventh Corps hastened to the First Corps's assistance.
Ewell, with his leading division (
Rodes's), at 2.30 P. M. came to
Heth's and
Pender's support, while
Early's division, at about 3.30 P. M., moved in such a way as to attack the
Federal flank, and at 4 P. M. the
Federal force was in full retreat through the town of
Gettysburg, toward the heights to the south of it, where a brigade of
Howard's had been posted as a reserve and rallying point in case of disaster when his corps marched to the battlefield.
A well-contested combat had occured between two infantry corps, a cavalry division, and the artillery on one side, and four divisions of infantry, with the artillery, on the other.
Fifty thousand men fought (after all were up), about equally divided in numbers between the contestants.
1 For six hours the battle raged.
