page_title: George Meade
section_title: Later life and death
hierarchical_section_title: George Meade / Later life and death
caption_attribution_description: English: George Meade tombstone in Laurel Hill Cemetery. Photo taken June 2020.
context_page_description: George Gordon Meade was a career United States Army officer and civil engineer best known for decisively defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War. He previously fought with distinction in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican–American War. During the Civil War, he served as a Union general, rising from command of a brigade to that of the Army of the Potomac. Earlier in his career, he was an engineer and was involved in the coastal construction of several lighthouses.
  Meade's Civil War combat experience started as a brigade commander in the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles. He was severely wounded while leading his brigade at the Battle of Glendale. As a division commander, he had notable success at the Battle of South Mountain and assumed temporary corps command at the Battle of Antietam. Meade's division was arguably the most successful of any at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December. It was part of a force charged with driving the Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson back from their position on Prospect Hill.
context_section_description: In 1865, Meade was admitted as an honorary member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati.
  Meade was a commissioner of Fairmount Park in Philadelphia from 1866 until his death. The people of Philadelphia gave his widow a house at 1836 Delancey Place, where he lived. The house still has the word "Meade" over the door, but it is now used as apartments. He also held various military commands, including the Military Division of the Atlantic, the Department of the East, and the Department of the South. He replaced Major General John Pope as governor of the Reconstruction Third Military District in Atlanta on January 10, 1868.
  Meade received an honorary doctorate in law (LL.D.) from Harvard University, and his scientific achievements were recognized by various institutions, including the American Philosophical Society and the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.
  Having long suffered from complications caused by his war wounds, Meade died on November 6, 1872 at the age of 56, still on active duty, following a battle with pneumonia. He was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
caption: George Meade tombstone in Laurel Hill Cemetery
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