General George Meade

George Meade was given command of the Army of the Potomac just three days before the battle of Gettysburg, site of the charge by Pickett's confederate troops which proved to be a decisive defeat for the Confederate cause. In Go Down, Moses, Cass is referring to that defeat when he notes, somewhat obscurely, that Jeb Stuart and his cavalry troops were not at the battle, "when Lee should have known of all of Meade just where Hancock was on Cemetery Ridge" (272). Meade was in command of "Hancock" and his Union troops; Cemetery Ridge was the point at which Pickett's ill-fated charge was directed.