George meade biography for kids

George Gordon Meade was a Union general during the American Civil War. He served for most of the war and is most well-known for being the victorious commander at the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg.

He was born on Dec.

31, 1815 in Cádiz, Spain.

George meade biography for kids

He grew up in Philadelphia and also lived in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. He attended Mount Hope Institution in Baltimore and the American Classical and Military Lyceum in Philadelphia. He enrolled in the U.S. Military Academy in 1831 and graduated four years later.

Meade fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida and in the Mexican-American War, earning acclaim for his efforts at the Battle of Monterrey.

After that war, he served in the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers along the Atlantic coast and conducted surveys of the Great Lakes area. In 1840, he married Margaretta Sergeant, the daughter-in-law of Henry Clay; the couple had seven children.

Meade gained his first command as head of a Pennsylvania brigade in 1861, and he and