Civil War History

Civil War History 47.3 (2001) 269-270

Book Review

General John Pope:
A Life for the Nation.

Of Civil War commanders, Union general John Pope ranks among the most maligned and misunderstood. Despite a distinguished military career spanning over forty years, his low standing rests largely on his performance in command of the ill-fated Army of Virginia in the summer of 1862. His boastful pronouncements on his arrival in the East antagonized his men and taunted George B. McClellan and his lieutenants in the Army of the Potomac, while his orders affecting Virginia's civilian populace drew the singular enmity of Confederate chieftain Robert E. Lee. Pope's mishandling of his army in late August brought defeat at Second Bull Run and delivered to Lee what was arguably the Virginian's greatest triumph. Confronted with the stigma of defeat, he faced transfer away from the main theaters of war to the relative obscurity of service on the frontier.

Noted Civil War historian Peter Cozzens has done much to rehabilitate the general's besmirched reputation. Two years ago he teamed with Robert I. Girardi to resurrect Pope's long-forgotten memoirs and shed light on key episodes of his war service. In his latest work, General John Pope: A Life for the Nation, Cozzens produces a full-length treatment of the general's career, placing his actions in the Second Bull Run campaign within the context of a life of service. [End Page 269]

The opening chapters covering Pope's early career tend to reinforce many long-held impressions of the officer. He displayed a penchant for self-promotion and bluntness of speech early in his career and frequently antagonized his superiors in seeking assignments of his choice. A loyal Republican, he freely courted political patrons within the Republican party. Invited to join Abraham Lincoln on his inaugural train ride to Washington, Pope welcomed the opportunity to curry favor with the president-elect's entourage. When his later entreaties for a brigadier's commission in the regular army resulted in a mere volunteer commission, he displayed his worst traits and chafed at the supposed slight.

In highlighting Pope's early war service, however, Cozzens depicts an officer of much promise. On assuming a command in Missouri, the brigadier demonstrated qualities of ingenuity and combativeness that helped to secure the bitterly-divided state for the Union. His success in taking New Madrid and Island No. 10, coupled with his role in the advance on Corinth, led to a summons to Washington in June 1862 to accept command of the makeshift Army of Virginia.

Cozzens appropriately treats Pope's Virginia campaign as the watershed of his military career, devoting fully one-third of his narrative to the general's two-and-a-half months in the East. In a command he neither sought nor wanted, the general pursued policies similar to those that had attracted the attention of Lincoln's administration and in doing so served as "a political weapon . . . against McClellan and the conservative approach to war-making he personified."

Cozzens provides a penetrating analysis of the Union high command during the weeks leading to Second Bull Run, with special attention given to the strained relations among Pope, McClellan, and Henry Halleck, who served as general in chief. While acknowledging Pope's responsibility for leading his army to defeat at Bull Run, the author places blame for the want of cooperation between army commanders squarely on Halleck's shoulders. Transferred to Minnesota after Second Bull Run, Pope helped quell a destructive Indian uprising and became a tireless advocate for reform of the nation's Indian policy. Cozzens offers considerable insight into this and other aspects of Pope's little-known later career, showing an officer with a talent for administration over vast geographic commands and a concern for the plight of the soldier on the frontier. Much of the bluster that marked his character during his early career disappeared...