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| Maj. Richard K. Meade, Jr. |
When Major Anderson
chose to transfer his command to Fort Sumter, 2nd Lt. Meade used one
of the barges to help move the troops. Meade was back at Castle Pickney when
James J. Pettigrew arrived on the following day. Meade had no soldiers, just
himself and an ordnance sergeant, along with several workers. When Meade
refused to open the gate, Pettigrew’s men procured ladders and scaled the
walls. Pettigrew demanded Meade surrender on order of the governor of South
Carolina, which Meade stated he could not do. The US flag was hauled down and a
red flag with a white star was run up. Meade refused to watch the flag go up
and retired to his room to write his report. Meade also refused a parole, believing
that to do so acknowledged South Carolina as a foreign government. Meade then
headed for Fort Sumter.[2]
Major Anderson sought Meade’s opinion when the Star of the West was fired upon, and when Governor Pickens sent two men to demand the Fort’s surrender. At the later, it was Meade who suggested that the matter be referred to their superiors in Washington, telling Anderson that if they fired on the South Carolinians firing on the ship, “It will bring civil war on us.”[3] Meade was placed in charge of making bags for powder for the cannons prior to the battle. When the battle began on April 12, Meade found himself in command of a gun crew. He was also still in charge of making powder bags, which were soon running short.[4]
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| The capture of Castle Pinckney |
At one point, prior
to the battle, Meade received a note that one member of his family, his mother,
or maybe a sister, was ill. Meade received a furlough to visit the sick
relative. Abner Doubleday later wrote that Meade’s absence to Virginia, was a “strategic
move to force poor Meade into the ranks of the Confederacy. . . He had
previously been overwhelmed with letters on the subject. He was already much
troubled in mind; and some months after the bombardment of Fort Sumter the pressure
of family ties induced him (very reluctantly as I heard) to join the
Disunionists.”[5] However,
Doubleday would later praise Meade, writing that while he had never been under
fire, Meade “proved [himself] to be [a true] son of [his] Alma Mater at West
Point.”[6]
Meade accompanied
Anderson and the others to New York following the surrender of Fort Sumter.
When Virginia left the Union, Meade resigned his commission on May 1, 1861. He
soon pitched his fate with the Confederate forces and was appointed major of
artillery in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States. Meade was assigned
as engineering officer to Magruder, then worked on the defenses in the Cape
Fear area, with General Branch at New Bern, and served as engineer officer on
the staff of James Longstreet about the time of the Seven Days campaign. Major
Meade died of disease, probably typhoid, on July 31, 1862, and is buried at
Blandford Church Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia.[7]
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