Abraham Lincoln: A Biography

16. "The Occasion is Piled High with Difficulty"

CHAPTER XVI _e .. "The Occasion is Piled High with Difficulty" 1f INC 0 L N endured anxious days as McClellan's troops L withdrew from the Peninsula, for Lee, anticipating the Union movement, hurried on interior lines to strike Pope with superior numbers before the Union armies joined. But Pope, maneuvering skillfully along the north bank of the Rappahannock , foiled Lee's repeated efforts to force a crossing. Lincoln knew both John Pope and his father personally. The young officer, West Point '4~, an experienced engineer, promoted on the field for valor in Mexico, had been detailed to accompany the President-elect on his journey to Washington; and Judge Nathaniel Pope, presiding over the United States District Court for Illinois, had tried many of Lincoln's cases. When Pope's operations under Halleck opened the Mississippi River south to Memphis, and influential Illinois politicians urged Lincoln to reward him with high rank, the badgered President had reminded them in characteristic phrase that majorgeneralships in the regular army "are not as plenty as blackberries ." Lincoln seems to have had misgivings about John Pope, but now the handsome, sharp-bearded general was to have his chance, and Lincoln hoped he might prove worthy of it. Pope had the aggressiveness that McClellan lacked, but showed the same vainglory. One of his first acts on taking 336 ABRAHAM LINCOLN command of the Army of Virginia was to issue a proclamation contrasting the achievements and fighting qualities of the Eastern and Western armies, and boasting that thenceforth attack and not defense would be the order of the day. His headquarters would be in the saddle, he declared. Contemptuous of McClellan's policy of gentlemanly war, he ordered stern measures against the civil population of Virginia. Pope's proclamation had been intended to infuse new spirit in the army. Instead it brought sly jeers from the ranks, antagonized officers who were loyal to l\fcClellan, and caused Lincoln grave concern; too often military bombast had foretold defeat. Balked at the Rappahannock, but eager to attack before McClellan's troops joined Pope in force, Lee determined on a daring movement. Dividing his army, he sent Jackson on a wide swing around Pope's right flank. In a maneuver similar to a modern airborne operation, but accomplished with foot soldiers, Jackson struck with his usual suddenness, severing Pope's communications and capturing his supply depot at Manassas Junction . Ragged Confederate soldiers feasted on lobster salad and Rhine wine from the Union commissary, and stuffed their empty haversacks, before setting fire to enormous stores of food, ammunition, and equipment. Confusion swept the Union army. Lincoln slept scarcely at all night after night as he tried to locate divisions and follow the fast-moving tide of battle. "Any news from Gen. Pope?" he wired to General Ambrose E. Burnside at Newport News. "What news from direction of l\lanassas Junction? What generally?" he telegraphed McClellan, who had moved his headquarters to Alexandria. "Is the railroad bridge over Bull Run destroyed?" the perplexed President inquired of General Herman Haupt, his chief of railway transportation. Halleck ordered McClellan to rush his veteran regiments to the battle area as rapidly as they arrived from the Peninsula. All furloughs in Pope's army were revoked. Having wreaked havoc behind the Union lines, Jackson retreated northwestward, fighting off pursuers to give Lee time to join him. On August 29 Pope launched costly attacks against "... Piled High with Difficulty" 337 a railroad embankment sheltering Jackson's troops. Instead of attacking he should have been seeking a position for defense, for while he hammered futilely at Jackson, Confederate General James Longstreet circled west of the Bull Run Mountains, forced the virtually undefended Thoroughfare Gap, and massed on Pope's left flank. All through the ensuing desperate two-day battle near the old field of Bull Run, while Pope groped blindly for the enemy and failed to bring his full force into the fight, McClellan dallied in sending forward reinforcements. As Pope's situation became desperate, McClellan advised Lincoln either to concentrate all available forces to open communication with Pope, or to leave that general "to get oiIt of his scrape" as best he could and provide for the safety of the capital. No middle ground would do, McClellan said; Lincoln should define McClellan's authority and instruct him what to do. During the Peninsular campaign McClellan had shown small concern for Washington; now its safety...