CHAPTER XXIII.

POPE'S CAMPAIGN.

GENERAL POPE AND THE ARMY OF VIRGINIA.-POPE'S ADDRESS TO HIS SOLDIERS.-HALLECK AS GENERAL-IN-CHIEF.-LEE'S STRATEGY.-BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN.-STUART'S RIDE AROUND POPE.-POPE'S UNIFORM.-STONEWALL JACKSON BEHIND POPE.-FIGHT at BRISTOW STATION. THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN.-POPE DECEIVED.-BATTLE OF CHANTILLY.-POPE SHOWS HIS BACK.-DEATH OF PHIL KEARNY.-POPE RESIGNS AND GOES WEST.-MCCLELLAN AGAIN.-POPE'S CHARGES AGAINST PORTER.-LEE'S SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN. THE CONFEDERATES CROSS THE POTOMAC.-COOL RECEPTION IN MARYLAND.BARBARA FRIETCHIE AND STONEWALL JACKSON.

WE

THILE these things had been taking place before Richmond, the forces under Fremont, Banks, and McDowell had been brought together and consolidated into the Army of Virginia, the command of which had been given to Major General John Pope. As Fremont objected to serving under an officer who had been under his command in the West, his corps was given to General Sigel. General Pope, who had had some military experience in General Halleck's department, had come to Washington with singular notions about the methods of fighting in the East and the West, and soon after taking command he issued a bombastic address to his army, in which he cast reflections on the generals who had preceded him, and boasted of what he himself intended to do. "I have come to you," he said, "from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies-from an army whose business it has been to seek the adversary, and to beat him when found." This made him unpopular with the Eastern soldiers, and created illfeeling against him among the officers.

It soon became evident that General Pope's ideas of conducting the war were so different from those of General McClellan and other officers in command of his army that they could not act in harmony unless they had some officer over them; so Major-General Halleck was called from the West and made general-in-chief of all the armies of the United States. In this position of course he outranked both officers, and both had to obey his orders. He agreed with General Pope in criticising McClellan's movement to the James River, and insisted that the Army of the Potomac should be removed from the Penin

sula and brought back before Washington. This was precisely what General Lee wished to bring about, for McClellan's army was still very strong and, while holding a position almost impossible to be successfully attacked, continually threatened Richmond. President Lincoln had promised to send General McClellan twenty thousand men from Burnside's department in North Carolina, and with this addition to his army McClellan intended to advance once more against Richmond.

Lee finally concluded that the best way to get rid of McClellan would be to attack Pope's army and thus threaten Washington again, for he knew through his spies of nearly everything going on there, and he felt that such a movement would

HENRY WAGER HALLECK.

frighten the politicians and bring such a pressure to bear on Mr. Lincoln that he would be forced to recall the Army of the Potomac. He therefore sent Stonewall Jackson to Gordonsville, toward which Pope appeared to be moving. Gordonsville was an important railroad place, on the line of the railway connecting Richmond with the Shenandoah Valley and with southwestern

Virginia. Pope was then on the other side of the Rapidan with about forty thousand men, and Jackson, finding him too strong to attack, waited at Gordonsville for reinforcements. He was soon joined by A. P. Hill, and he then crossed the Rapidan in search of Pope. On the 9th of August part of his force, under General Ewell, attacked General Banks's corps at Cedar Mountain, and after a hard fight defeated it. Banks fell back, pursued by the enemy, and Jackson, after holding the battle-field two days, recrossed the Rapidan to Gordonsville. He was soon after joined by Lee with Longstreet's division and Stuart's cavalry, and moved forward again across the Rapidan. Pope then fell back behind the Rappahannock. Lee followed, and tried to find a place to cross the river, but all

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the fords were so strongly guarded that he could not force a passage.

In the mean time Stuart, with fifteen hundred cavalry, rode around behind Pope's army one dark and stormy night (Aug. 22), with the intention of cutting the railroad. By chance he struck Pope's headquarters at Catlett's Station, and captured his baggage and his official papers, which gave General Lee full information about the number of his troops, his position, and his designs. Stuart burned a few army wagons and carried off about three hundred prisoners and some booty. Among the spoils was General Pope's dress uniform coat, which Stuart said paid him for his hat and cape which some Union Cavalry had captured a short time before. On his return he dressed up a negro in Pope's uniform, shoulder-straps and all, and made him ride on a mule beside him through the streets of Warrenton, bearing on his back a placard with the inscription: NO RETREAT! ON TO RICHMOND!

The information that Lee had obtained from Pope's papers induced him to divide his army and send part of it to cut off Pope from Washington. This dangerous duty was given to Stonewall Jackson, who marched rapidly up the river and, passing the Bull Run Mountains through Thoroughfare Gap, reached Bristow Station, on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, on the evening of August 26. This was behind Pope and between him and Washington. From there he sent Stuart with his cavalry to Manassas Junction. Stuart reached there before midnight, surprised the post, captured three hundred prisoners, eight guns, ten locomotives, seven trains of cars, and immense quantities of stores. All of the stores and other things. that could not be used were burned.

Pope had been deceived by Jackson's movement, but as soon as he understood it he began to fall back toward Manassas in three columns. General Hooker's column had a fight near Bristow Station with a part of Jackson's force, under Ewell, and defeated it. Pope ordered McDowell to move from Gainesville toward Manassas on the morning of August 28, saying "we shall bag the whole crowd."

Jackson's position was now a very dangerous one, for the main body of Lee's army was still two days' march away and Pope was closing in on him with a greatly superior force.

He

moved quickly through Centreville and then turned westward toward Thoroughfare Gap in order to meet Longstreet, who was coming from that direction. Toward evening of August 28 Jackson reached the old battle-ground of Bull Run. The advance of McDowell's corps, which was close behind, was attacked furiously by Jackson. The fight raged until night, with considerable loss to both sides, but the advantage was with the Confederates. General Ewell was badly wounded in this battle and lost a leg.

On the next morning the battle was renewed by General Sigel's corps. Sigel gained ground until about ten o'clock, when Jackson was reinforced by Longstreet's corps, which had marched from Thoroughfare Gap. At noon Kearny came to Sigel's aid, and soon after other parts of the Union army arrived, and the struggle continued until night fell.

Pope wrote to Washington that a terrific battle had been fought, which "lasted from daylight until dark, by which time the enemy was driven from the field, which I now occupy." Deceived the next morning by the appearance of the retreat of Lee's troops, he ordered McDowell to pursue, telegraphing to Washington that the enemy was "retreating to the mountains." But General McDowell soon found out that this was a mistake, and the movement resulted in a bloody battle in which the Union forces were defeated. During the night the army fell back across Bull Run to Centrevillle, where it was joined by the corps of Franklin and Sumner from the Army of the Potomac. These two battles (Aug. 29 and 30) are sometimes called the Second Bull Run or Second Manassas; but the name is sometimes given only to the second battle, the first (Aug. 29) being called the battle of Groveton, from a hamlet near by.

Lee sent Jackson around again toward Fairfax Court-House, so as to cut off Pope from Washington. But Pope, fearing such a movement, had fallen back, and on September 1st Jackson attacked his right at a place called Chantilly. He was repulsed after a short but severe fight, and on the next day, by order of General Halleck, the army was marched back to the Potomac and withdrawn within the defences of Washington.

One of the greatest losses suffered by the Union army in this campaign was that of Major-General Philip Kearny, who was killed at Chantilly. He was born in New York (1815), and

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studied law, but when twenty-two years old became a lieutenant of dragoons in the United States army. Being sent to Europe to study the French cavalry tactics, he went to Algeria, where he served in the Chasseurs d'Afrique and received the cross of the Legion of Honor for bravery. He was a captain of dragoons in the Mexican war, was made a major for gallantry at Contreras and Churubusco, and lost his left arm in a charge before the city of Mexico. After the war he again went to Europe to study, served in the French army in the great battles of Magenta and Solferino, and was a second time decorated by the Emperor Napoleon III. with the cross of the Legion of Honor. He hastened home when the Civil War broke out, was

made a brigadier-general, and distinguished himself at Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Frazier's Farm, and at Second Bull Run. At Chantilly he rode forward. to the front to reconnoitre, and by mistake got within the Confederate lines. He asked a Confederate soldier where a certain regiment was posted, and seeing his blunder turned to ride away, when the soldier shot him dead. His body was left on the battle-field, and

was sent the next day by General Lee, who had known him well in the old army, to General Pope with a flag of truce. He was much loved by his soldiers, and those who had served under him wore in his memory a decoration formed of a golden Maltese cross bearing his name, suspended by a red ribbon.

While the army of Pope was thus falling back in disorder upon Washington, the capital of the nation was believed to be in the greatest danger. The politicians, who had done their utmost to bring about the downfall of McClellan, were terrorstricken and knew not which way to turn. They had no advice to give, no leader to suggest. Some even made preparations for flight. In anxiety and fear President Lincoln turned for