there he met in 1856, george gordon meade. he was working on lighthouses for the u.s.army corps of engineers. he was a topographic engineer. he was laying out the proper places, mapping areas, supervising lighthouses. the two of them became very good friends despite a vast age difference, at least 17 years difference. theodore lyman was in his 20s at the time. they really got along well. so they had always kept up this correspondence over the years, and when theodore lyman decided it was time that he should do something for the cause, he thought immediately of his old friend, george gordon meade. he said sure, if you want to come, stay a couple months and go home, tell everybody you did your part, come on. but underneath that, an interesting letter, i quote some of it in the introduction, he offers more of a challenge. it is more like i understand you feel you have to do something to impress all of your blue blood friends, etc.. but really, i could use some help here. when theodore lyman showed up at headquarters in september of 1863, he quickly found a niche, he becam

grant, general william tecumseh sherman, joseph, philip sheridan, george gordon meade and other notables of frank were among the vast concourse of mourners who gathered to pay their respects. his passing was considered in national calamity. today, textbooks often omit him or at best give him a few lines. yet no man was more responsible than thomas for the union victory in the war. how may be summarized his life? born into a slaveholding family in virginia not far from the side of the climactic battle of the revolutionary war, at yorktown, he chafed early on that the system of slavery that sustains his family's wealth. as a boy, he thought they-- taught the families slaves how to read and write, it is set against his family's wishes and if not quite in abolitionist as a young man, he was one in the making by repealed by his conduct in subsequent years. at the age of 19 he went off to west point, did well, the ground with william tecumseh sherman helmke protected from upper-class police. seemed never to forget anything he learned, fought with conspicuous distinction in the seminal and mexi