Date: November 6, 2013
Nationally-recognized Civil War preservationist Anthony Waskie portrays General George G. Meade. Waskie, who teaches in the Civil War and Emancipation Studies program at Temple University, traces General Meade’s life from his work as an engineer and lighthouse builder, through combat in the Seminole and Mexican Wars, to his assumption of command of the Union Army on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg (where he handed Confederate General Robert E. Lee his first defeat). After the Civil War General Meade, who was integral to the survival of the Union, lived in Philadelphia where he helped to design Fairmount Park in addition to founding two schools for orphans of Civil War veterans.