On the 31st Lee sent Jackson northward for the purpose of again turning Pope's right. Pope, supposing that this attempt would be made, had prepared to resist it, and on the evening of the following day a

Battle of Chantilly.

conflict occurred near Chantilly, in the midst of a terrible thunder-storm. In this General Stevens and General Kearny were killed, but the attack was checked. Pope, now forced back to the works of Washington, resigned his command, and was succeeded by McClellan. His losses in the campaign were probably campaign. not less than 30,000 men, 30 guns, 20,000 small-arms, and vast quantities of munitions and supplies. Lee's loss during these operations was probably about 15,000 men.

Losses of the

the campaign.

Justice has not yet been rendered to General Pope for Pope's conduct in his conduct in this campaign. He had a most difficult task to accomplish, and had to depend on very unreliable means. Though there never was purer patriotism than that which animated the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, that army had been brought, through the influence of officers who surroundCondition of the ed General McClellan, into a most dangerPotomac Army. ous condition-dangerous to the best interests of the nation-of having a wish of its own, and that wish in opposition to the convictions of the government. In armies it is but a very short step from the possession of a wish to the expression of a will. Perhaps at no period of the war were thoughtful men more deeply alarmed for the future of the nation than when they heard of the restoration of McClellan to the command, and recognized the unmistakable constraint under which the government had acted. It was in vain for well-meaning persons to affirm that the general had never been relieved, and that what had now taken place was no more

CHAP. LVII.] POPE'S CONDUCT IN THE CAMPAIGN.

445

than an ordinary proceeding: the Peninsular disaster was too recent, the complaints and asseverations of Pope of disobedience to his orders among the higher officers too loud for the real state of affairs to be concealed.

Pope ought to have

sustained,

"Leave Pope to get out of his scrape!" What had Pope done to merit inevitable destruction? been energetically He had gone down to the Rapidan in obedience to orders to compel the enemy to release his hold on the army in the Peninsula. He was keeping at bay in the best manner he could-nay, more, he was desperately assailing Lee's ablest lieutenants. For more than a fortnight he was fighting battle after battle against overwhelming forces, first, to prevent the junction of his antagonists, and then to resist their whole mass. He might have been indiscreet in his reflections on the generalship of his predecessor, but, had he been ten times more so, this was not the moment of retaliation for such offenses. Was he not now the soldier of the republic, at the head of her forlorn hope in the very breach? When, from the midst of the fire converging upon him, he cried out for more ammunition to enable him to keep his foothold, how was he answered? "I know nothing of the calibres of Pope's artillery."

but he received"

The operations of Pope with the Army of Virginia were based entirely on the expected junclukewarm support. tion of re-enforcements from the Army of the Potomac. Not without indignation does he say in his report, "Twenty thousand five hundred men were all of the ninety-one thousand veteran troops from Harrison's Landing who ever drew trigger under my command, or in any way took part in this campaign." "The complete overthrow of Lee's army, or at least the entire frustration of his movement toward the Potomac, was defeated by the failure of the Army of the Potomac to effect a junction in time with the Army of Virginia on

the line of the Rappahannock, or even so far back as the line of Bull Run."

In his report to the Secretary of War, the general in chief, Halleck, referring to these events, says, "Some of the corps (from the Peninsula) moved with becoming activity, but the delays of others were neither creditable nor excusable." "Most of the troops actually engaged in these battles fought with great bravery, but some of them could not be brought into action at all. Many thousands straggled away from their commands; and it is said that not a few voluntarily surrendered to the enemy, so as to be paroled prisoners of war."

Critical position of

From the tenor of Pope's complaints, the reader can not fail to discern that the national governthe government. ment was at this time passing through a serious crisis. The triumphant Confederate army threatening Washington was by no means the only formidable object before the republic. Individual grievances are of little moment in the eye of history save when they are connected with national interests-they become of su preme importance when they presage public perils. Enough has been said to enable the reader to perceive that at this momentous period the government was act ing under constraint.

General McClellan himself has told us what were Mr. Lincoln's impressions as to the army at that time. "The President informed me that he

The President implores McClellan

to sustain Pope. had reason to believe that the Army of the Potomac was not cheerfully co-operating with and supporting General Pope, and now asked me, as, a special favor, to use my influence in correcting this state of things. The President, who was much moved, asked me to telegraph to 'Fitz John Porter, or some other of my friends,' and try to do away with any feeling that might

CHAP. LVII.] CRITICAL POSITION OF THE GOVERNMENT.

447

exist, adding that I could rectify the evil, and that no one else could."

McClellan sends a

In consequence of this urgent appeal to him, McClellan sent to Fitz John Porter his dispatch of Sepdispatch to Porter. tember 1st: "I ask of you, for my sake, that of the country, and the old Army of the Potomac, that you and all of my friends will lend the fullest and most cordial co-operation to General Pope in all the operations now going on," etc.

Lincoln reconciled

Lincoln was ostensibly reconciled to the reinstating of McClellan by the circumstance that he, of to McClellan's re- all the generals, was most familiar with the defenses of Washington. What with fatigue, disappointment, and anxiety, Halleck's health was almost broken down.

instatement.

Position of anxiety

Military critics will doubtless point out professional mistakes in Pope's campaign. In justice, of Lincoln. however, they must bear in mind his disappointed expectations of support. Well might Lincoln, who, notwithstanding his general buoyancy, was subject to paroxysms of deep depression, almost despair when he saw so much gallantry wasted. Well might his heart sink within him when he was now sardonically told, in allusion to his former solicitude for the seat of government at the outset of the Peninsular campaign, " at once to use all our means to make the capital perfectly safe." And well was it for him that he had a cool and courageous Secretary of War, who looked beyond the shame and disasters of the passing moment; who, in their many weary watches together through the night-hours at the War Department, could sustain him in his anxieties, and organize for him victory at last.

All things looked auspiciously for the Confederacy. Lee's sortie thus far The national army had been thrust from its ground, and had, after awful losses, sought

completely successful.

shelter in the defenses of Washington. The sortie of Lee seemed to be a brilliant success. There was nothing now to prevent him passing into Maryland-apparently noth ing to prevent his proposed march to the North. Joy was diffused throughout every Southern state; peace and independence seemed to be close at hand.