Major-General George Gordon Meade and Staff. Not men, but a man is what
counts in war, said Napoleon; and Lee had proved it true in many a bitter
lesson administered to the Army of the Potomac. At the end of June, 1863,
for the third time in ten months, that army had a new commander.
Promptness and caution were equally imperative in that hour. Meade's
fitness for the post was as yet undemonstrated; he had been advanced from
the command of the Fifth Corps three days before the army was to engage in
its greatest battle. Lee must be turned back from Harrisburg and
Philadelphia and kept from striking at Baltimore and Washington, and the
somewhat scattered Army of the Potomac must be concentrated. In the very
first flush of his advancement, Meade exemplified the qualities of sound
generalship that placed his name high on the list of Federal commanders.
[Illustration: ROBERT E. LEE IN 1863