george gordon meade is not present when robert e. lee surrenders. grant is not feeling well that day. they do not wait. the only comment, lee looks at meade and says, you have gotten replies,yer, and meade you have to account for most of that. was notpomattox, meade close to simpson: that is the point. they did not wait. we are still concerned about image, and it seems to me, so concerned about how meade tried to commit himself, especially in his private letters -- which we should emphasize, private letters to his wife -- i think we have forgotten something more fundamental. that is about philosophy. i think scott was pointing to it. you see meade as a more modern general. had contingencies in terms of his planning. what we are forgetting is that meade came to an understanding that civil war armies were indestructible. he came to that conclusion -- one that lee never, ever reached -- sherman certainly did. i don't know about grant. but for us to really understand decision-making in the field, there was the recognition that you could, in fact -- it is