Historic Structures Report, Part I: The Leister Farm Buildings (Meade's Headquarters)

Tilberg F. 1961. Historic Structures Report, Part I: The Leister Farm Buildings (Meade's Headquarters). Historic Structure Report. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service

The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Rebellion", Gettysburg was the Civil War's bloodiest battle and was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln's immortal "Gettysburg Address". The Gettysburg National Military Park protects and interprets the landscape of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. This historic structure report concerns the Leister Farm Buildings (Meade's Headquarters) at Gettysburg. General George G. Meade, commander of the Union army, arrived on the field soon after midnight July 2. Later in the morning he selected the vacated Leister house for use as his headquarters. Situated at the center of the developing Union lines, the house became the nerve center of command in the Second and Third days' battle, and of plans for pursuit of the withdrawing Confederate army on July 4. Late at night July 2, the house was the scene of the .council of war cal.led to determine whether the army should withdraw from Gettysburg or hold their positions. On the afternoon of July 3, the house and barn, located 300 yards in the rear of the Union position on Cemetery Ridge, were subjected to severe and continuous artillery fire over a period of nearly two hours. General Meade and his staff were forced to withdraw from the Leister house to General Slocum's headquarters on Powers Hill, a mile eastward. General Meade returned to the house after the climax of Pickett's Charge and continued to use it as his headquarters until the withdrawal of the Union army from the battlefield July 5. This historic structures report gives historical and landscape data, as well as ten proposals for site restoration.

Type
Published Report
Authors
Tilberg, Frederick
Date of Issue
1961-12-04
Publisher
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
Units
GETT , NER
Keywords
agriculture, Civil War, farm, General Meade, homestead, Leister House, Lydia Leister, restoration, vernacular architecture
Subjects
CRIS-HS: 081255: Leister Boundary Stone Wall , CRIS-HS: 000458: Lydia Leister Farm Barn , CRIS-HS: 081357: Lydia Leister Farm Boundary Fence , CRIS-HS: 081276: Lydia Leister Farm Field Stone Wall , CRIS-HS: 000457: Lydia Leister Farm House , CRIS-HS: 081254: Lydia Leister Farm Yard Fence

Series

See also

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