Book Review: The Union Generals Speak: The Meade Hearings on the Battle of Gettysburg

The Union Generals Speak: The Meade Hearings on the Battle of Gettysburg. Edited by Bill Hyde. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Reprint 2023. 409 pp. Paperback $30.00

Reviewed by Doug Crenshaw

Many students of the Battle of Gettysburg are familiar with the story of President Lincoln and his administration’s frustration with Maj. Gen. George Meade’s failure to attack and crush Gen. Robert E. Lee’s defeated army following the battle. The theory was that Lee’s troops were defeated, low on morale and ammunition, and were ripe for the picking. All was needed was more effort. True enough, the Confederates had suffered devastating losses at Gettysburg and were heading back to Virginia in not the best condition. However, apparently little thought was given to the fact that the Federal army had also suffered greatly. According to editor Bill Hyde, the Army of the Potomac had lost a third of its officers and a quarter of its men, killed, wounded, or missing on Gettysburg’s fields. Added to this were the losses of two of the army’s ablest corps commanders, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock (wounded), and Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds (killed), and how could we forget Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles (also wounded)? The administration also did not seem to appreciate the fact that Meade had just received command of the army on June 28, only three days prior to the opening of the battle.

After the 1861 Federal disasters at Bull Run and Ball’s Bluff, a committee was formed to investigate the Union prosecution of the war. On December 9, 1861, the creation of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War received approval from the Senate. Why anyone thought a group of politicians could or should weigh in on military matters was anyone’s guess. While the intention might have been good, politics naturally found its way into the Committee’s deliberations, and the bias of members like Ohio Senator Benjamin Wade was clear. In particular, generals who showed Democratic leanings or were friends of Maj. Gen. George McClellan were always suspect, and West-Pointers were not to be trusted.

Following the Union victory at Gettysburg, the Committee called in witnesses to understand why Meade had failed to follow up his victory (and possibly have him removed from command). Added to this were rumors that Meade did not even want to fight at Gettysburg; that he wanted to pull his army back to Maryland and invite Lee to attack him. The Committee brought Army of the Potomac corps commanders and others in to testify. Many of them, such as Dan Sickles, David Birney, and Alfred Pleasanton, used the opportunity to promote their own careers at the expense of Meade. Some asserted that Meade intended to retreat from Gettysburg before the battle; others criticized him for not attacking the Confederate army before it crossed back into Virginia. Meade did have supporters, though: Gouverneur K. Warren, Winfield Scott Hancock, John Gibbon, and Henry Hunt were among them. According to Hyde, the Committee’s resulting report (drafted by Wade) was “filled with innuendo, half-truths and outright lies” that “almost defies belief.” The findings were politically motivated and subjective, but fortunately the influence of the Committee was waning.

In The Union Generals Speak: The Meade Hearings on the Battle of Gettysburg, Bill Hyde has done extensive research and provides the actual hearing transcripts for the book’s readers. He adds his own commentary to each testimony, which is insightful and extremely helpful. If you are interested in the Committee’s proceedings, or want a more complete understanding of the characters involved in this political/military clash, you might find The Union Generals Speak to be a fascinating read.