tisburg the complete victory lincoln had been hoping for always hung like a cloud over the unhappy george mead. there is an element of injustice in this. meade had only been shoved into command of the army of the potomac three days before the battle. and he was compelled by circumstances to pick up the army of the potomac where he found it, using a staff he had no time to replace, and under the unappreciative gaze of other major generals in that army, who saw no reason to yield meade automatic deference. on those ground there had been serious efforts from time to time to refashion meade in more glowing colors. as the unsung genius who bettered robert e. lee. meade's most recent biographer portrayed him as the rodney dangerfield of civil war generals. he gets no respect. but the major cause for that lack of respect lies primarily with meade himself. at first meeting, the near-sighted philadelphia aristocrat might have been taken for a presbyterian clergyman. that is, unless one approached him when he was mad, for meade possess ad volume cantic temper which it did not require much to trigger. be