before the battle. The partial defeat impelled Gen.
Meade to make preparations for a retreat. Generals
Abner Doubleday and Alfred Pleasonton, who were
intrusted with the arrangements, subsequently rep-
resented that their commander had already given
up the hope of holding the position, but he denied,
with solemn protestations, before the congressional
committee on the conduct of the war, " ever having
intended or thought, for one instant, to withdraw
that army unless the military contingencies which
the future should develop during the course of the
day might render it a matter of necessity that the
army should be withdrawn." In the evening he
called a council of war, which advised him against
either retreating or attacking, in which opinion he
coincided, though expressing the belief, it is said,
that the position was bad. Flushed with the suc-
cess of the day, and relying on the prestige gained
at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Gen. Lee
determined to renew the attack on the National
army in its strong position on the following day.
In the morning Meade took the offensive against
Ewell, and drove him from the intrench ments that
he had captured on the right, nearest the town.
At one o'clock the Confederates opened fire with
145 guns, to which the National artillery replied
with 80, which was all that could be advanta-
geously planted on their ridge. When the National
fire ceased, after two hours. Gen. George E. Pickett's
division charged Meade's centre under a heavy artil-
lery and infantry fire, poured in from all sides, and
was nearly annihilated ; a few of them reached the
breastworks, only to fall there or be made prison-
ers. Gen. Meade then ordered an advance on the
left, and drove back Gen. John B. Hood's division.
Both armies remained in their positions until the
evening of the next day, when Lee retreated to the
Potomac, and was there obliged to intrench until
the waters subsided. Meade followed slowly by a
longer route, and when he came up to the Con-
federates, on 12 July, intrenched himself, postpon-
ing an attack, in deference to the decision of a
council of war, until he could make a reconnois-
sance. An advance was ordered to be made on
the morning of the 14th, but during the night the
enemy had crossed the river. The Confederate force
engaged at Gettysburg was about 69,000 men, while
the effective strength of the Army of the Potomac
was between 82,000 and 84,000, but its numerical
superiority was in a measui'e neutralized by the
fatigues of its long marches. Gen. Meade was
commissioned brigadier - general in the regular
army on 3 July, 1863.
After the advance of the Army of the Potomac into Virginia the detachment of large forces caused comparative inactivity, which was followed in the autumn by the actions at Bristoe's Station, Kelly's Ford, and Rappahannock Station, and the opera- tions at Mine Run in December. The army ex- perienced no reverse while Gen. Meade was com- mander-in-chief, and he was continued in the command of the Army of the Potomac after Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had been made commander of all the armies of the United States and assumed the direction of the operations in person. He was made major-general on 18 Aug., 1864. During two years, or more than half the period of its exist- ence. Gen. Meade was in immediate command of the Army of the Potomac, and, having been in every campaign of the army since its formation and in all of its battles except two, commanded in the grand review that took place in Washington after the close of the war. During the time that intervened before the southern states resumed regular political relations with the government he commanded the military division of the At- lantic. Prom August, 1866, till January, 1868, he commanded the Department of the East, then till August, 1868, the military district embracing Georgia and Alabama, next the Department of the South, comprising the same states with South Caro- lina and Florida, and from March, 1869, till his death, he was at the head of the military division of the Atlantic again. He received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1865, and was a member of the American philosophical society, of the Penn- sylvania historical society, and of the Philadel- phia academy of natural sciences, and one of the commissioners of Fairmount park. His death was caused by pneumonia, aggravated by complications resulting from the gun-shot wound that he had received at New Market Cross-Roads. He was buried with imposing military honors. An eques- trian statue of Gen. Meade, designed by Milne Calden, was dedicated in Fairmount park, Phila- delphia, on 18 Oct., 1887. The allegation that Gen. Meade planned a retreat on the second day at Gettysburg is controverted in a pamphlet by George Meade, entitled " Did General Meade desire to retreat at the Battle of Gettysburg ? " (Phila- delphia, 1883). — Another son of Richard Worsam, Richard Worsam, naval officer, b. in Cadiz, Spain, in 1807 ; d. in New York city, 16 April, 1870, entered the U. S. navy as a midshipman on
April, 1826, and passed that grade on 14 June,
1834. He became a lieutenant on the reserved list, 20 Dec, 1837, commander on the active list, 14 Sept., 1855, and captain on 16 July, 1862. In 1861 he took command of the receiving-ship " North Caro- lina," which vessel he greatly improved, and in 1864 he commanded the steam sloop-of-war " San Jacinto," which was wrecked and lost on one of the Florida reefs. He was retired with the rank of commodore on 11 Dec, 1867. — The second Richard Worsam's son, Richard Worsam, naval officer, b. in New York citv. 9 Oct., 1837; d. in Washington, D. C, 4 May, 1897, entered the U. S. navy as a midshipman, 2 Oct., 1850, became a lieu- tenant, 23 Jan., 1858, lieutenant-commander, 16 July, 1862. commander, 20 Sept., 1868, and captain, 13 March, 1880. He served during the civil war on the Mississippi river, and in the South Atlantic and Western Gulf squadrons. He became commodore, May, 1892, rear-admiral, September, 1894, and was retired in May, 1895. — George Gordon's son, George, b. in Philadelphia, 2 Nov., 1843 ; d. there,
Feb., 1897. He was educated in Philadelphia, en-
listed as a private in the 8th Pennsylvania militia regiment, and served in the ranks during the Antie- tam campaign, after which he was honorably dis- charged. InOctober he was appointed 2d lieutenant in the 6th Pennsylvania cavalry (Rush's lancers), and served in the Army of the Potomac in the Fred- ericksburg campaign, and in Gen. Stoneman's cavalry raid of April and May, 1863. He was pro- moted to the rank of captain and aide-de-camp in June, 1863, and appointed to the staff of his father, who then commanded the 5th corps. Army of the Potomac, and he served continuously on the staff until the surrender of Gen. Lee. In November, 1865, he was appointed a 2d lieutenant in the 9th U. S. infantry, and in July, 1866, promoted to a captaincy in the 31st infantry. Upon the consoli- dation of the army in 1869 he was transferred to the 22d infantry, after being brevetted major and lieutenant-colonel, U. S. A., for gallant and meri- torious services during the civil war. He con- tinued on the staff of Gen. Meade most of the time until the death of the general, and resigned from the army in October, 1874. Col. Meade was the only
