Editing George Meade (section)

===Political rivalries===
Many of the political rivalries in the Army of the Potomac stemmed from opposition to the politically conservative, full-time officers from West Point. Meade was a [[Northern Democratic Party|Douglas Democrat]] and saw the preservation of the Union as the war's true goal and only opposed slavery as it threatened to tear the Union apart. He was a supporter of McClellan, the previously removed commander of the Army of the Potomac, and was politically aligned with him.{{sfn|Chick|2015|pp=13-14}} Other McClellan loyalists who advocated a more moderate prosecution of the war, such as [[Charles Pomeroy Stone|Charles P. Stone]] and [[Fitz John Porter]], were arrested and court-martialed.{{sfn|Chick|2015|p=16}} When Meade was awakened in the middle of the night and informed that he was given command of the Army of the Potomac, he later wrote to his wife that he assumed that Army politics had caught up with him and he was being arrested.{{sfn|Coddington|1997|p=209}}

Meade's short temper earned him notoriety, and while he was respected by most of his peers and trusted by the men in his army, he did not inspire them.{{sfn|Tagg|1998|pp=1-4}}{{sfn|Heidler|Heidler|2002|p=1295}} While Meade could be sociable, intellectual and courteous in normal times, the stress of war made him prickly and abrasive and earned him the nickname "Old Snapping Turtle".<ref>{{cite web |title=General George Meade Equestrian Statue |url=https://www.nps.gov/places/general-george-meade-equestrian-statue.htm#:~:text=An%20experienced%20soldier%20and%20highly,the%20large%20domed%20Pennsylvania%20Monument. |website=www.nps.gov |publisher=National Park Service United States Department of the Interior |access-date=23 March 2023}}</ref> He was prone to bouts of anger and rashness and was paranoid about political enemies coming after him.{{sfn|Chick|2015|pp=16-17}}

His political enemies included [[Daniel Butterfield]], [[Abner Doubleday]], Joseph Hooker, [[Alfred Pleasonton]] and [[Daniel Sickles]].{{sfn|Chick|2015|pp=12-13}} Sickles had developed a personal vendetta against Meade because of Sickles's allegiance to Hooker, whom Meade had replaced, and because of controversial disagreements at Gettysburg. Sickles had either mistakenly or deliberately disregarded Meade's orders about placing his [[III Corps (Union Army)|III Corps]] in the defensive line,{{sfn|Hall|2003|p=98}} which led to that corps' destruction and placed the entire army at risk on the second day of battle.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sears |first1=Stephen W. |title=Controversies & Commanders: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac |date=1999 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-618-05706-1 |pages=215–222 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HZ7iBAAAQBAJ |access-date=8 February 2023}}</ref>

Halleck, Meade's direct supervisor prior to Grant, was openly critical of Meade. Both Halleck and Lincoln pressured Meade to destroy Lee's army but gave no specifics as to how it should be done.{{sfn|Chick|2015|p=15}} [[Radical Republicans]], some of whom like [[Thaddeus Stevens]] were former [[Know Nothing]]s and hostile to Irish Catholics like Meade's family,  in the [[Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War]] suspected that Meade was a [[Copperheads (politics)|Copperhead]] and tried in vain to relieve him from command.{{sfn|Heidler|Heidler|2002|p=1296}} Sickles testified to the committee that Meade wanted to retreat his position at Gettysburg before the fighting started.{{sfn|Coddington|1997|p=339}} The joint committee did not remove Meade from command of the Army of the Potomac.<ref name=nps.gov/>