George Meade (1815-1872) was a U.S. Army general and civil engineer who served as commander of the Union Army of the Potomac during the Civil War (1861-65). Meade entered the Civil War as a brigadier general and first served during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. He was badly wounded at the Battle of Glendale during the Seven Days Battles, but recovered and went on to perform admirably at the Battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. Meade succeeded General Joseph Hooker as commanding officer of the Army of the Potomac in June 1863. Only a few days later Meade achieved a major victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, where his army repelled repeated assaults by General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate forces. While Meade’s victory crippled the Confederate Army, he was widely criticized for allowing Lee’s weakened force to escape into Virginia. Meade’s reputation for caution led to the appointment of the more aggressive Ulysses S. Grant as Union general-in-chief in 1864. Meade continued to lead the Army of the Potomac in a subordinate role until the end of the war, serving at the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor.