wzh55
Posts: 188
Joined: 3/17/2001
From: Sacramento, CA USA
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Ratings and Teaching Abilities are open to voting.....
Word Count: 3790
Maj.-Gen. John Pope
(b: March 18, 1822 Louisville, Kentucky – d: September 23, 1892, Sandusky, Ohio). Pope graduated from West Point in 1842 and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the Topographical Engineers. He later fought in the war with Mexico and was considered a top soldier and continued to rise regularly in rank. In June 1861, Pope was appointed brigadier general of volunteers and was ordered to Illinois to recruit volunteers. In the Western Department of Maj.-Gen. Frémont, Pope was given operational control along a portion the Mississippi River. He disliked Frémont and tried behind the scenes to get him removed from command. He quickly gained a reputation among his troops for insensitivity and bullying. Even so, in a minor action at Blackwater, Missouri, Pope forced the Confederates under Sterling Price to retreat southward. Pope had also established a reputation as a braggart early in the war and so generated enough interest in this minor victory to gain the attention of Frémont's replacement, Henry Halleck. Halleck appointed Pope to command the Army of the Mississippi in February 1862 and ordered him to clear Confederate obstacles on the Mississippi River. He surprised New Madrid, Missouri, and captured it in March. With the assistance of riverine gunboats he then captured Island No. 10, a strongly fortified post garrisoned by 12,000 men and 58 guns in April 1862. Pope's outstanding performance on the Mississippi earned him a promotion to major general of volunteers in March 1862. He was soon summoned east by Lincoln and in June 1862, was promoted to the rank of major general and given command of the new Army of Virginia. Pope was told to protect Washington, and draw away rebel forces contesting McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign. Pope soon made it clear he intended to develop an aggressive approach to the war. Soon after taking command he issued a proclamation to his troops: "I have come to you 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 where he was found; whose policy has been attack and not defense. I presume that I have been called here to pursue the same system and to lead you against the enemy. It is my purpose to do so, and that speedily." Despite this bravado, and despite receiving units from McClellan's Army of the Potomac, Pope's aggressiveness exceeded his strategic capabilities. Sensing that Pope was indecisive, Lee split his smaller army, sending Stonewall Jackson with 24,000 men as a diversion to Cedar Mountain, where Jackson defeated Pope's subordinate, Nathaniel Banks. As Lee advanced upon Pope with the remainder of his army, Jackson's swung around to the north and captured Pope's main supply base at Manassas Station. Confused and unable to locate the main Confederate force, Pope walked into a trap in the Second Battle of Bull Run. His men withstood a combined attack by Jackson and Lee on August 29,1862, but on the following day Longstreet launched a surprise flanking attack and Pope was soundly defeated and forced to retreat. Pope blamed his defeat on disobedience by Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter, who was found guilty by court-martial and disgraced. Pope himself was relieved of command in September 1862, and his army was merged into the Army of the Potomac under McClellan. He spent the remainder of the war in the Department of the Northwest in Minnesota, dealing with the Dakota War of 1862. He was promoted to brevet major general in the Regular Army in March 1865 for his service at Island No. 10. and was promoted to major general, Regular Army, in 1882, before retiring in 1886. He died September 23, 1892 at the Ohio Soldiers' Home near Sandusky, Ohio and was buried in St. Louis, Missouri.
Ratings:
Leadership: 2
Tactics: 2
Initative: 5
Command: 2
Cavalry: 0
Teaches: Chargers, (maybe Fast...any other suggestions?
< Message edited by wzh55 -- 8/11/2007 5:48:45 AM >
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Bill Hawthorne
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