Gen. George Meade took charge of the Army of the Potomac three days before the fighting began at Gettysburg. His statue is on Cemetery Ridge near the farthest reach of Pickett's Charge at the Union Line. It shows him astride Old Baldy, who was wounded on day two of the battle. Both survived the war, and Old Baldy was the riderless horse in the general's 1872 funeral procession.
This is a 3-inch ordinance rifle. It fired projectiles weighing about 10 pounds and had an effective range of just over a mile.
The two-room farmhouse of Lydia Leister, close behind the Federal line on Cemetery Ridge, became Gen. George Meade's headquarters during the battle. On the night after the second day of fighting, he had a war council with his top commanders in the room on the right. The decision they reached was to stay and fight.
