Union commander who defeated General Robert E. Lee at the battle of Gettysburg

(1815-1872) He was born in Cádiz, Spain, to a wealthy merchant and banking family from Philadelphia. He graduated in the West Point class of 1835, and fought with distinction in the Second Seminole War, and the Mexican War where he earned a brevet for gallantry in the battles at Monterey. He served in the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, and led the construction of lighthouses in Florida and New Jersey from 1851 to 1856, and the United States Lake Survey from 1857 to 1861. He fought in the 1862 Virginia Peninsular campaign, and in the Seven Days battles in Virginia where he was very severely wounded leading his brigade at Glendale. He recovered in time to fight at 2nd Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Elevated to commander of the Army of the Potomac on the eve of the Gettysburg campaign, he defeated Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Commander of the famed Army of Northern Virginia, in the epic 3 day battle at Gettysburg, and went on to fight in all of the battles of the Army of the Potomac culminating in the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court House, Va., on April 9, 1865. He was well known for his notoriously short temper and disdain for the press, and earned the nickname of the "snapping turtle." After the war, he commanded the Military Division of the Atlantic from 1865 to 1866, the Department of the East from 1866 to 1868, and the Military Division of the Atlantic again from 1869 to 1872.

8 x 10, portrait of George Gordon Meade wearing a frock coat and shoulder straps with rank of major general. His eye glasses can be seen tucked into his coat. Beautiful colorized copy photograph suitable for display. Excellent condition.