General George Gordon Meade is best known to history as the commander of the victorious Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg the greatest battle of the Civil War. In his own lifetime meager credit was allotted him for his achievement at Gettysburg for his long pursuit of General Robert E. Lee into Virginia and for the furious marches his men were forced into both before and after Gettysburg until finally -in the vicinity of Appomattox Courthouse he again held the upper hand. And since his death in 1872 frequent criticism has been meted out to him for not following up the victory his troops accomplished.