ARMY OPERATIONS. 



127 



promptly and to the purpose. These labors are nearly 

 completed, and I am about to join you in the field. 

 Let us understand each other. I h'ave 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 an adversary and beat him when found ; 

 whose policy has been attack and not defence. In but 

 one instance has the enemy been able to place our 

 Western armies in a defensive attitude. I presume I 

 have been called here to pursue the same system, and 

 to lead you against the enemy. It is my purpose to 

 do so a'ud that speedily. I am sure you long for an 

 opportunity to win the distinction you are capable of 

 achieving ;" that opportunity I shall endeavor to give 

 you. In the mean time I desire you to dismiss certain 

 phrases I am sorry to find much in vogue amongst 

 YOU. I hear constantly of taking strong positions and 

 holding them of lines of retreat and bases of supplies. 

 Let us discard such ideas. The strongest position a 

 soldier should desire to occupy is one from which he 

 can most easily advance against the enemy. Let us 

 study the probable line of retreat of our opponents, 

 and leave our own to take care of itself. Let us look 

 before us, and not behind. Success and glory are in 

 the advance disaster and shame lurk in the rear. 

 Let us act on this understanding, and it is safe to pre- 

 dict that your banners shall be inscribed with many a 

 glorious "deed, and that your names will be dear to 

 your countrymen forever. 



(Signed) JOHN POPE, Maj.-Gen. Commanding. 



Subsequent orders issued by Gen. Pope at 

 this time indicate the manner in which he pro- 

 posed to conduct the campaign, as follows : 



HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF YIRQIXIA, I 

 WASHINGTON, July IS, 1S62. f 

 General Orders, No. 5 : 



Hereafter, as far as practicable, the troops of this 

 command will subsist upon the country in which their 

 operations are carried on. In all cases supplies for 

 this purpose will be taken by the officers to whose de- 

 partment they properly belong, under the orders of 

 the commanding officer of the troops for whose use 

 they are intended. Vouchers will be given to the 

 owners, stating on their face that they will be payable 

 at the conclusion of the war upon sufficient testimony 

 being furnished that such owners have been loyal 

 citizens of the United States since the date of the 

 vouchers. 



Whenever it is known that supplies can be furnish- 

 ed in any district of the country where the troops are 

 to operate, the use of trains for carrying subsistence 

 will be dispensed with as far as possible. 



By command of Maj.-Gen. POPE. 



GEO. D. RCGGLES, Col. A. A.-G. and Chief of Staff. 



HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF VlEGISIA, July IS, 1S62. 



General Orders, No. 6 : 



Hereafter in any operations of the cavalry forces in 

 this command no supply or baggage trains of any de- 

 scription will be used unless so stated especially in the 

 order for the movement. Two days' cooked rations 

 will be carried on the persons of the men, and all vil- 

 lages and neighborhoods, through which they pass, will 

 be laid under contribution in the manner specified by 

 General Orders, No. 5, current series, from these head- 

 quarters, for the subsistence of men and horses. 



Movements of cavalry must always be made with 

 celerity, and no delav in such movements will be ex- 

 cused hereafter on any pretext. 



Whenever the order for the movement of any por- 

 tion of the army emanates from these headquarters, the 

 time of marching and that to be consumed in the exe- 

 cution of the duty will be specifically designated, and 

 no departure therefrom will be permitted to pass un- 

 noticed without the gravest and most conclusive rea- 

 sons. 



Commanding officers will be held responsible for 

 strict and prompt compliance with every provision of 

 this order. By command of Maj.-Gen. POPE. 



GEO. D. RCGGLES, Col. A. A.-G. and Chief of Staff. 



Another order was issued on the same day, 

 declaring that the inhabitants along the lines 

 of railroads and telegraphs and the routes of 

 travel, would be held responsible for any in- 

 jury done to track, line, or road, or for any 

 attacks on trains or stragglers by bands of 

 guerillas in their neighborhood. In cases of 

 damage -to roads the citizens, within five miles, 

 would be turned out in mass to repair the dam- 

 age. If a soldier or legitimate follower of the 

 army was fired upon from any house, the same 

 should be razed to the ground. By another 

 order all disloyal citizens within the lines of 

 the army, or within the reach of its respective 

 officers, were to be arrested at once. Those 

 taking the oath of allegiance, and giving suffi- 

 cient security for its observance, were to be 

 allowed to remain ; all others were to be con- 

 ducted to the South, beyond the extreme 

 pickets, and if again found anywhere within 

 the lines, were to be treated as spies and sub- 

 jected to the extreme rigor of military law. 

 These orders of Gen. Pope were followed by 

 the pillaging of private property and by insults 

 to females to a degree unknown heretofore dur- 

 ing the war. The Confederate Government, by 

 way of retaliation, issued an order declaring that 

 Gen. Pope and the commissioned officers serv- 

 ing under him, were " not entitled to be con- 

 sidered as soldiers, and therefore not entitled 

 to the benefit of cartel for the parole of future 

 prisoners of war. Ordered, further, that in 

 the event of the capture of Maj.-Gen. Pope, or 

 any commissioned officer serving under him, 

 the captive so taken shall be held in close con- 

 finement so long as the orders aforesaid shall 

 continue in force, and unrepealed by the com- 

 petent military authority of the United States, 

 and that in the event of the murder of an un- 

 armed citizen or inhabitant of this Confederacy 

 by virtue or under pretence of the order herein- 

 before recited, it shall be the duty of the com- 

 manding general of the forces of this Confed- 

 eracy to cause immediately 'to be hung, out of 

 the commissioned officers prisoners as aforesaid, 

 a number equal to that of our own citizens thus 

 murdered by the enemy." 



The main divisions of Gen. Pope's army 

 were now stationed at Culpepper Court House 

 and Fredericksburg. Culpepper Court House 

 is about seventy miles from "Washington and 

 equally distant from Richmond. The route 

 crosses the Long Bridge at Washington, thence 

 through Alexandria, Fairfax, Manassas, War- 

 renton, &c. Fredericksburg is connected 

 with Washington by steamboat navigation on 

 the Potomac to Aquia Creek, thence by rail- 

 road, fifteen miles, to Fredericksburg, which is 

 sixty miles by railroad from Richmond. Gen. 

 Pope, although not personally in the field nntil 

 the 27th of July, had been engaged in concen- 

 trating his forces. His delay in taking the field 

 was occasioned by the absence of Maj.-Gen. 

 Halleck, who arrived at Washington on the 

 23d of July, and entered upon the duties of 

 general-in-chief. 



