CH. IV]

HALLECK

159

returned from his visit to the Army (July 8) perplexed in mind. In May he had told General Meade, "I am trying to do my duty but no one can imagine what influences are brought to bear on me." 1 Conditions in this respect were worse in July. The Radicals not only pressed him to make a declaration against slavery but urged him to remove McClellan, whom they denounced as incompetent or disloyal and utterly out of sympathy with any attack upon slavery. They had induced the President to give Frémont another command after he had shown his incapacity in Missouri; they had another favorite in Benjamin F. Butler; but Pope had a military education which the others lacked and seemed to be equally zealous against slavery. Stanton and Chase desired the President to remove McClellan and send Pope to take command of the army on the James river; this he declined to do but he offered the command of the Army of the Potomac to Burnside, who peremptorily declined it.

On July 23, Halleck reached Washington, went next day to the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac and had a frank talk with McClellan, who, eager to remain on the James river, said that with a reënforcement of 20,000 to 30,000, he would cross the James river, attack Petersburg, an important railway centre, and cut the communication between Richmond and the States farther South. Halleck did not approve this plan and, on his return to Washington, the President, guided by his and other advice, determined to withdraw McClellan's army to Aquia Creek in spite of the General's warm protest. Then Lee decided to attack Pope who, well-informed and wary, retreated before the superior Confederate force. Lee, watching the movement from a hill, said to Longstreet, with a sigh of disappoint

1 General Meade, I, 267.

160

POPE'S DEFEAT

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ment, "General, we little thought that the enemy would turn his back upon us thus early in the campaign."

The rest of Pope's campaign consisted of a series of blunders on his part aggravated by the indecision of Halleck, who evinced an utter incapacity for directing the movements of the two armies. There was also a lack of hearty coöperation with Pope by the Army of the Potomac. Halleck, Pope, the President, Stanton, Chase and McClellan, all had a hand in the management of the troops. Against these contended one able head, Lee, who had two powerful arms in Jackson and Longstreet. By a swift march Jackson göt in Pope's rear, tore up the railroad and cut the telegraph wires, severing his line of supplies and direct telegraph communication with Washington, but before Pope could catch him, he had fled and taken up a position to await calmly Longstreet's arrival. Pope, reënforced by two corps from the Army of the Potomac, attacked the Confederates on August 29 and was repulsed, although he thought that he had gained a victory. In pursuance of this illusion, he brought on next day the Second Battle of Bull Run, wherein acting as if in obedience to Lee's own wishes, he delivered himself into the enemy's hands, met with a crushing defeat, which became a rout, the men fleeing in panic from the field.

The common belief in Washington was that Pope had on August 29 won a great victory. "Everything seemed to be going well and hilarious on Saturday" (August 30), wrote John Hay in his Diary, "and we went to bed expecting glad tidings at sunrise. But about eight o'clock the President came to my room as I was dressing and calling me out said : 'Well, John, we are whipped again, I am afraid. The enemy reinforced on Pope and drove back his left wing, and he has retired to Centreville where he says he will be able to hold his men. I don't like that expression. I don't like

CH. IV]

ANXIETY IN WASHINGTON

161

The

to hear him admit that his men need holding. despatches from Pope were indeed alarming. In one of them he asked whether Washington were secure if his army should be destroyed; in another he disclosed his lack of confidence in the Army of the Potomac and its officers' lack of confidence in him. McClellan, who was now at Alexandria, did not "regard Washington as safe against the rebels. If I can quietly slip over there," he said in a letter to his wife, "I will send your silver off."

September 2 was an anxious day in Washington. Early in the morning came a despatch from Pope telling a sad tale of demoralization of his own army and of excessive straggling from many regiments of the Army of the Potomac. "Unless something can be done," he continued, "to restore tone to this army, it will melt away before you know it." The President knew the one remedy and, in spite of the bitter opposition and remonstrance he was certain to encounter, placed McClellan, who in the shifting of troops had been deprived of all actual authority, in command of all the soldiers for the defence of the capital. Halleck had already ordered Pope to bring his forces within or near the lines of the fortifications; there his authority passed to McClellan. In view of the "great danger to Washington," Halleck asked that all the available troops be sent as rapidly as possible to the capital. A number of gunboats were ordered up the river, and anchored at different points in proximity to the city, and a war steamer was brought to the Navy Yard. All the clerks and employees of the civil departments and all employees in the public buildings were called to arms for the defence of Washington. The sale of spirituous liquors at retail within the District of Columbia was prohibited. It was a moment of acute anxiety.

M

1 J. Hay, I, 62.

162

MCCLELLAN IN COMMAND

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McClellan, elated at being called to the rescue, went forward to meet his soldiers. Encountering J. D. Cox, he said, "Well, General, I am in command again." Warm congratulations ensued. The two rode on until they met the advancing column of the army, Pope and McDowell at its head. When it became known that McClellan had been placed in command, cheers upon cheers from the head to the rear of the column were given "with wild delight. Inspired by the confidence of his men, he wrought with zeal. His talent for organization had full play and in a few days he had his army ready for an active campaign. Lincoln's comment was, "McClellan is working like a beaver. He seems to be aroused to doing something by the sort of snubbing he got last week."

At the Cabinet meeting of September 2, the opposition to McClellan broke forth. Stanton, trembling with excitement, spoke in a suppressed voice.1 Chase maintained that as a military commander McClellan had been a failure, that his neglect to urge forward reënforcements to Pope proved him unworthy of trust and that "giving command to him was equivalent to giving Washington to the rebels." "This and more I said," set down Chase in his diary. All the members of the Cabinet except Seward (who was out of the city) and Blair "expressed a general concurrence." Lincoln was distressed and perplexed; "he would gladly resign his place; (the presidency) but he could not see who could do the work wanted as well as McClellan." Chase replied that either Hooker, Sumner or Burnside could do it better.2

The President again offered the command of the army in the field to Burnside, who again declined it, saying, I do not think that there is anyone who can do as much with 2 Warden, 459.

1 Welles's Diary, I, 104.