What I like about General Meade

Mr King

First Sergeant
Joined
Jun 21, 2008
What I like about General Meade when he took command of the Union Army was that he was not like the others; Pope, Burnside and Hooker(not counting McDowell and McClellan), for they were proud braggarts who boasted of their own plans and strategies to win but all failed. Meade was a humble man who knew he was new to command and after the first day of battle he had a meeting with all his generals and asked their opinions on whether to stay and fight or not, he relied on the opinions of his generals and not himself. All his generals voted unanimously to stay and fight therefore he stayed to fight. It would probably be disastrous for the Union Army if instead of Meade to command they had another Hooker or Burnside or Pope. He may have not pursued General Lee's Confederate Army in their retreat but didn't want to take the risk, rather be safe than sorry. This angered Lincoln but Meade in my opinion had rathered stake his reputation than the Army and the Union.
 
What I like about General Meade when he took command of the Union Army was that he was not like the others; Pope, Burnside and Hooker(not counting McDowell and McClellan), for they were proud braggarts who boasted of their own plans and strategies to win but all failed.

While I agree that Meade was much more humble than most of the commanders of the AoP, I wouldn't call Burnside a "proud braggart." He was well aware that he wasn't cut out to command an army. Having twice turned down the command, he was finally forced to accept it.
 
Saint Jude, thank you for correcting me in this. This is a history based on facts and not opinions. I did think that Burnside attacked the way he did because of the Northern politicians. He then thought he could march his entire army across Fredericksburg and defeat the Confederate Army. But it was the politicians who kept the pressure on him to, Attack! Attack!
 
I like Meade, the old Snapping Turtle! One thing about him - he was the first Union commander Lee really respected. He had the numbers of the others and knew how to beat them, but Meade was very good. He was the first to decisively beat Lee, too. I think he was right in stopping his pursuit of the ANV, but part of it was he didn't know how badly he'd hurt it. The AoP had given as good as they'd gotten and that was plenty. The weather was bad as well. Perhaps he missed a chance but we have to remember Lincoln was not on the ground where Meade was, so the picture lacked something from his perspective! I also give Meade credit for being a good if cranky second banana. It was probably a bit hard on his pride to have Grant come into his tent with him, but he was still the commander of the AoP. He worked well with Grant.
 
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