GEORGE MEADE, THE VIETS, AND ME

By Jimmie von Tungeln

September 30, 2023

After beginning my study of the battle, intrigue led me to the National Parks service. The service maintains a web site on the battle of Gettysburg. I went there to find out more about this man Meade. If any site should direct my study, this one should.

      At that time, the effort met with failure and surprise. The National Park Website on the Gettysburg Battlefield Park did not mention General George G. Meade whatsoever. Instead, it concentrated on, as might be expected, Robert E. Lee. It also featured prominently a rebel division commander, George E. Pickett. The latter’s division was present for only one day of the battle, Being a fresh unit, it took part, with two other divisions, in the most spectacular failure of the battle. More on that later. Having enjoyed a 100-year publicity campaign by historical revisionists, that rebel general now represents America’s most famous, yet beloved, loser.

      As for the forgotten General Meade, Allen C. Guelzo summoned it well in a 2013 essay republished in 2017:

      “And yet the mention of Meade has always been met with a certain degree of pause—surprise that an officer with such modest credentials could manage to pull off such a mammoth victory as Gettysburg, and then chirping criticism that, having triumphed as he did, Meade failed to do more, failed to stop Lee from escaping back into Virginia and thus end the Civil War right there and then. Although both of those reactions are unfair, they are also accurate. And together, they have come to define George Gordon Meade’s long-term reputation.”[i]

      At the time of this writing, the NPS website on the battlefield treats Meade with more deference, a sign of a growing but grudging acceptance of the man’s remarkable performance. That it has taken a century and a half for such redemption seems regrettable, but is welcome, nonetheless.

      Age has resulted in the most beneficial catalyst for the Viets. At this time, they have become too “long in the tooth” to play ubiquitous crazed psychopaths, lost souls, or deranged superheroes—sometimes a bit of each. Those are roles they filled for years in film, TV, and modern literature. Oh, they stand in on occasion as the most despicable in a clan of despicables, usually southerners or actors attempting to portray southerners. These days they mostly appear as old men with funny caps who wander the streets dreaming of lost love and “lid bags.”

      As Scott Cooper expressed in it a piece for the Modern War Institute at West Point in 2021:

      “In Vietnam the troops lost their noble and heroic image. To others, they were baby killers and suckers. The stereotype of the US soldiers in the war were the goons who perpetrated the atrocities of My Lai, or the blue-collared Boston Southies who didn’t have the connections to get out of the draft. And the result is a generation of combat veterans perceived as products of a single mold, one that gave us James Webb and John Rambo—that of the aggrieved warrior.”[ii]

      All parties, General Meade and the Viets, wander through history with their images drawn to whatever viewpoint correlates highly with an individual viewpoint. Like the nautical Flying Dutchman, their true legacy has never found a safe harbor.

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[i] Guelzo, Allen C. “George Meade’s Mixed Legacy,” Historynet, 2017 https://www.historynet.com/george-meades-mixed-legacy/

[ii] AFTER VIETNAM, AMERICAN SOCIETY’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ITS MILITARY WAS BADLY FRAYED. AFTER TWENTY YEARS OF POST-9/11 WARS, IT IS AGAIN. Scott Cooper

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[i] AFTER VIETNAM, AMERICAN SOCIETY’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ITS MILITARY WAS BADLY FRAYED. AFTER TWENTY YEARS OF POST-9/11 WARS, IT IS AGAIN. Scott Cooper

 

GEORGE MEADE, THE VIETS, AND ME

By Jimmie von Tungeln

 Prologue

It takes a Vietnam veteran to understand the lack of appreciation America has paid the victor of the country's most famous battle. That would be the Battle of Gettysburg, fought on the first three days of July 1863. The general would be Maj. Gen. George Gordon Mead. If you’ve never heard of him, don’t worry, most Americans haven’t. A majority of those who do are ones who never forgave him for his monumental act of temerity. His army won the battle, if an army can ever “win” a battle. And he was to blame for it.

      Who was he to defeat the undefeatable Robert E. Lee? Lee was then the rebellion’s darling, later to become an American favorite, second only to George Washington. How could he have been bested by someone named Meade, days before only an unknown Corps commander in the U.S. Army? Americans don’t easily forgive those who fail to live up to their mythical dogmas. Nor do they embrace those who destroy their most cherished fantasies.

      General Meade paid dearly for his transgressions. A later generation would suffer in kind. The difference? Meade earned his historical displeasure for a victory. Veterans of the police action in Southeast Asia earned theirs for a defeat. In both cases unpopular figures shattered myths. We don’t like that. We don’t allow it. We stop it when we can with whatever means are available.

      Meade paid with historical neglect, ridicule, and outright prevarication. Vietnam veterans, we’ll call them “Viets,” paid with the forfeiture of their valor, of which there was more than the public at large would admit. In both cases, the damage proved irresolute.

      Victims fell under the spell of stubborn myths. The so-called “Lost Cause Myth,” some now call it the “Loser Cause Myth,” not only destroyed reputations, it destroyed the lives of fellow Americans for more than a century. It even clings to its evil purposes in modern times. Malicious, but talented, artists, like D.W. Griffith and  Margaret Mitchell, helped shunt generations of African-Americans into ghettos, substandard schools, and labor that barely provided sustenance. Powerful leaders like Woodrow Wilson stood by, sometimes idly and sometimes not. Myths feed on it all: adherence, acceptance, and indifference.

      Viets also fell under the grinding spell of myths. Drug-crazed, spoiled brats in no way deserved the war flags of “The Greatest Generation.” Yes, that’s the one that forced its brothers of color to come home after the war to ghettos, substandard schools, and labor that barely provided sustenance. More recently, the Viets are enjoying some relief from the myth of “They could have won if the leaders had allowed them to,” a laughable tenant were it not so poetically alluring. Myths feed on it all: absolution, neatly packaged explanations, and ignorance.

      All this swirled about in my mind for years. Personally, I knew the Viets suffered from a bad rap. I had been there. After I decided to study the Gettysburg battle, I began to suspect that George G. Meade deserved more respect than Americans had given him. All he did was take a badly demoralized and undersupplied army, filled with political intrigue and, after only two days in command defeat the immortal Robert E. Lee. The latter, I began to suspect, deserved less respect than America had given him. Myths feed on it all: selective facts, well-crafted falsehoods, and propagation.

To be continued