Army of Virginia – John Pope

 

John Pope

John Pope Quotes

Last Updated April 19, 2010

With quotations by Pope first followed by others in alphabetical order of the person making the quote.  The first note is the location where I found the quote and the second is the footnote in that work which contains more background information on the quote.

“I have not only the approbation of my own conscience…but also when a person is transferred up it is published before the whole Corps of Cadets at the evening parade, and I assure you it is a great deal of satisfaction for one to hear himself praised.” John Pope Sep 17 1838

Pope in a letter to his mother from West Point

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000  page 8

JP to Lucretia Pope, Sep 17 1838, JP Papers, USMA.

“Your dispatch of the 24th received.  Will take Island 10 within a week.  Trust me.” John Pope March 1862

Pope to Halleck

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000  page 60

OR 8

“Boots in those days by no means grew on trees.” John Pope

Pope describing his visit to Pittsburgh Landing after the Battle of Shilon and the clay so deep that there was danger every moment of having his boots being sucked off his feet.

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000  page 65

39th Cong., 1st sess., “Report of General Pope,” CWSR,  2:70-71

“Do? Fight ’em, damn ’em, fight ’em” John Pope July 9 1862

Pope replying to Brig Gen Robert Schenk about what to do in case the enemy was found to do to dispute their advance.

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000  page 82

Smith, Thomas C.H. “Memoir and Review of Pope’s Campaign,” Smith Papers, OHS page  58

“Let us understand each other.  I have come 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 when he was found; whose policy has been attack and not defense.  In but one instance has the enemy been able to place our western armies in defensive attitude.  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.  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.  Meantime I desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases which I am sorry to find much in vogue amongst you.  I hear constantly of taking “strong position and holding them,” of “lines of retreat,” and of “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 lines of retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of themselves.  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 predict that your banners shall be inscribed with many a glorious deed, and that your names will be dear to your countrymen forever.” John Pope July 14 1862

John Pope’s military proclamation after assuming command of the Army of Virginia

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 84

Smith, Thomas C.H. “Memoir and Review of Pope’s Campaign,” Smith Papers, OHS page  58-59

“Don’t be uneasy.  We will hold our own here.  We have delayed the enemy as long as possible without losing the army, and I think the army entitled to the gratitude of the country.  Be easy; everything will go well.” John Pope

Pope reporting to Halleck on the Battle of Second Manassas

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 182

OR 12 pt 2 page  78-79

“My friends-the State of Illinois.  It has been for many years my home, and I am glad to return to it.  God Almighty knows sorry I am I ever left it.” John Pope

Pope speaking to a crowd in Chicago as he heads west to assume command in Minnesota

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 203

Wilson, James G. Biographical Sketches of Illinois Officers Engaged in the War against the Rebellion of 1861 (Chicago, 1862) page  92

 

“Goodbye Pope, your grave is made.”

Gordon Granger June 1862

Granger at a gathering of Pope’s Army of the Mississippi generals bidding him farewell as he departs for the east

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 1

OR, 17, pt 3 page 17

“That is the man.  Old [Judge] Pope was a flatterer, a deceiver, a liar, and a trickster; all the Popes are so.”

Montgomery Blair Sep 1862

Blair commenting on the leak of Pope’s battlefield report during the Maryland campaign

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 204

Welles, Gideon.  The Diary of Gideon Welles. 3 vols. Boston, 1911 vol  I:125-127

“I do not think it was the impression with the officers generally that General Pope, notwithstanding he was a talented officer, was fully up to the task of conducting so large a campaign.” Ambrose Burnside

Burnside’s reaction to Pope’s proclamation

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 85

OR 12 pt 2 suppl page 1005

“pugnacious and confident and conceited.  I do not think much of General Pope as a man, yet I consider him a good general…a wicket profane and overbearing old scalawag.” Cyrus Carpenter

Capt Carpenter, future governor of Iowa recalls Pope in the west

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 73

Throne, Mildred. Cyrus Clay Carpenter and Iowa Politics, 1854-1898 (Iowa City, 1974) page 59-60

“I remember well that I shrunk a little from coming under his immediate orders through fear of some chafing, though I learned in the army that choleric commanders, if they have ability, are often warmly appreciative of those who serve them with soldierly spirit and faithfulness.” Jacob Cox

Cox, one of Popes subordinates in the Army of the Virginia had this to say about him

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 84

Cox, Jacob.  Military Reminiscences of the Civil War 2 vols. New York, 1900 vol I: 247

“Between Halleck, McClellan, and Pope, the only one who had fought like a soldier and maneuvered like a general was sent to the northwestern frontier to watch Indian tribes, carrying the burden of others’ sins into the wilderness.  Mr. Lincoln’s sacrifice of his sense of justice to what seemed the only expedient in the terrible crisis was sublime.  McClellan commanded the army, and Porter and Franklin each commanded a corps.  If the country was to be saved, confidence and power could not be bestowed by halves.” Jacob Cox

Cox commenting on the relief of Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 201

Cox, Jacob.  Military Reminiscences of the Civil War 2 vols. New York, 1900 vol I: 259

“Vehement and positive in character, choleric and even violent toward those who displeased him,”

Jacob Cox

Cox remembers how he hoped to avoid service with Pope in the Second Bull Run Campaign

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 233

Cox, Jacob.  Military Reminiscences of the Civil War 2 vols. New York, 1900 vol I:247

“a good man of dash.  Give him 10,000 men to carry a position and it is done promptly.  He has courage, energy and enterprise, and in a smaller field was remarkably successful, but in a large theatre of action he is out of his place and nothing but failure could be expected.” Andrew H. Foote

The New York Evangelist quoted Commander Foote as saying this about Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 204

Philadelphia Public Ledger, Sept 13 and 15 1862

“Those who thought that, because he was so sanguine to florid in statement, he was not careful and accurate in determining what was essential, entirely mistook the man.”

Manning F. Force  a close friend of Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 6

Force, Manning F. “John Pope, Major General U.S.A.: Some Personal Memoranda.” in Sketches of War History, 1861-1865: Papers Prepared for the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, vol. 4. Cincinnati, 1896 vol 4:355

“Pope is of that inferior nature of man which runs to the rising sun.” Jessie Benton Fremont

Jessie Benton Fremont commenting about John Pope and his lack of loyalty to her husband John Fremont in the west

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 46

Freemont, Jessie Benton, The Letters of Jesse Benton Fremont, ed Pamela Herr and Mary Lee Spence (Urbana Ill. 1993)

Page 24

“deported himself as a gallant soldier under the heaviest fire of the enemy.”

John Garland

LTC Garland commanded a division that was supported at Monterry by Mansfield and Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 13

Schutz, Wallace J., and Trenerry, Walter N.  Abandoned by Lincoln:  A Military Biography of General John Pope. Urbana, Ill., 1990 page 26

“Fortunate indeed it was for us that pompous utterances and empty boasts were indulged in by Pope only in fair weather, when gentle breezes and quiet waters gave no token of a coming storm.  In an angry ocean Pope was a different being.  He was silent, even despondent at times, leaning on stronger men for counsel.”

George H. Gordon

Brigadier General Gordon on John Pope at Second Bull Run

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 81

Gordon, George H., A History of the Campaign of the Army of Virginia under John Pope (Boston 1889) II

“On one occasion [Pope] said to me that I ought to go into the United States service.  I told him I intended to do so if there was a war.  He spoke of his acquaintance with the public men of the state, ad said he would do all he could for me.  I declined to receive endorsement for permission to fight for my country.” U.S. Grant

Grant speaking Pope’s offer to help him get back in the army

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 34

Grant, U.S. Memoirs and Selected Letters. Edited by Mary D. McFeely. New York, 1990 pages  157-58

“Your splendid achievement excels in boldness and brilliancy all other operations of the war and will be memorable in military history and will be admired by future generations.” Henry Halleck April 8 1862

Halleck to Pope congratulating him on the capture of Island 10

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 pae g64

Henry Halleck to JP, Apr 8, 1862 ACPB, AGO, RG 94, National Archives

“This defeat kills Pope so dead he will have to be relieved at once.” Samuel Heintzelman Aug 31 1862

Heintzelman commenting on the battle of Second Manassas

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 185

Heintzelman Journal, Aug 31 1862, Heintzelman Papers, DLC

“an incompetent squirt” Robert Ingersoll Sep 10 1862

Col Ingersoll of the 11th Illinois Cavalry

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 73

Robert G. Ingersoll to Ebon Clark Ingersoll, Sept. 10 1862, Robert Ingersoll Papers, ISHL

“It is with regret that we parted with Pope, who for so long a time had held our entire confidence as a commander.” Oscar Jackson

Capt Oscar Jackson of Fuller’s Brigade, Army of the Mississippi

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 73

Jackson, Oscar L., The Colonel’s Diary:  Journals Kept before and during the Civil War (Sharon, Pa., 1922) page  60-61

“This insolent appeal in orders by Pope [was] a base lie, for the Western fighting has been child’s play.”

Philip Kearny  July 24 1862

Kearney responding to Pope’s proclamation

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 85

Philip Kearny to Cortlandt Parker, July 24 1862, Kearny Papers, DLC

“Who do they expect Pope to beat, with a very inferior force, the veterans of Ewell and Jackson?  Get me and my fighting division with Pope….With Pope’s arm I would breath again.” Philip Kearny Aug 4 1862

Kearney chafing under McClellan’s inactivity.

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 90

De Peyster John Watts, Personal and Military History of Philip Kearny, Major General United States Volunteers. New York, 1869 page  402

“I could forgive [him] fighting against us, if he had not joined such a miscreant as Pope.” Robert E. Lee

Lee to his daughter describing his nephew Colonel Louis Marshall, an officer on Pope’s staff

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 89

Hennessy, John J. Return to Bull Run:  The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas.  New York, 1992 page 21

 

“I want Pope to be suppressed” Robert E. Lee July 27, 1862

Lee in a letter to Jackson.

Robertson, James I.  Stonewall Jackson The Man, The Soldier, The Legend.  New York:  Macmillan Publishing Co, 1997 page 519

“I fully appreciate General Pope’s splendid achievements with their invaluable results, but you must know that Major Generalships in the Regular Army are not as plentiful as blackberries.”

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln to Gov Yates concerning Pope’s petition to be a Major General in the Regular Army after Island 10

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 65

Lincoln, Abraham, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln.  Edited by Roy P. Basler. 8 vols. New Brusnwick, NJ., 1953

Vol 5:186

“Pope did well, but there was an army prejudice against him, and it was necessary he should leave.  We had the enemy in our hands on Friday and if our generals, who were vexed with Pope, had done their duty…all of our present difficulties and reverses have been brought upon us by these quarrels of the generals.”

Abraham Lincoln August 1862

From Gideon Welles diary

Mason, Jack C.  Until Antietam The Life and Letters of Major General Israel B. Richardson, U.S. Army.  Carbondale IL:  Southern Illinois Press, 2009 page 169

Welles, Gideon, Diary of Gideon Welles.  New York:  Houghton Mifflin, 1911 vol 1:536-37

“did not apply himself to his books very closely.”

James Longstreet

West Point classmate describing Pope at the Academy

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 8

James Longstreet, “Our March against Pope,” Century 31 no 4 (Feb 1886): page 613

“He was a handsome, dashing fellow, a splendid cavalryman, sitting his horse beautifully.”

James Longstreet

West Point classmate describing Pope at the Academy

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 9

James Longstreet, “Our March against Pope,” Century 31 no 4 (Feb 1886):

“Lieutenant Pope executed his duties with great coolness and self-possession and deserves my highest praise.”

Joseph K. F. Mansfield

Mansfield to Taylor describing Pope at the Battle of Monterry in the Mexican War

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 13

Schutz, Wallace J., and Trenerry, Walter N.  Abandoned by Lincoln:  A Military Biography of General John Pope. Urbana, Ill., 1990 page 26

“paltry young man who wanted to teach me the art of war” George B. McClellan, George B.

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 85

McClellan, George B.  The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan:  Selected Correspondence, 1860-1865, ed. Steven W. Sears. New York:  Ticknor & Fields, 1989 page 368

“Two of my corps will either save that fool Pope or be sacrificed for the country.  I have just telegraphed very plainly to the president and Halleck what I think ought to be done-I expect merely a contemptuous silence.” George B. McClellan

McClellan to his wife

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 161

McClellan, George B.  The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan:  Selected Correspondence, 1860-1865, ed. Steven W. Sears. New York:  Ticknor & Fields, 1989 page 417

 

“To be sure he is given to blowing a little, but he is a stirring man, and one the Rebs feared, and hated, more than anyone else.” Henry Clay McNeil Nov 29 1862

An Iowa sergeant in the Army of the Mississippi

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 73

Henry Clay McNeil to his sister, Nov 29 1862, McNeil Papers, Sioux City Public Museum, Sioux City Iowa.

[if]”his gallantry was the theme of admiration of the whole army, the army never knew it till after the letter so stating the fact came back in the papers…Pope behaved very well and did his duty…but nothing more than all the rest of the army did.” George G. Meade

Meade reacting to a letter that Pope wrote that appeared in newspapers after the Battle of Monterry which was very complimentary of him.

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 14

Meade, George G. The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General, United States Army. Edited by George Gordon Meade. 2 vols. New York, 1913 vol I:166

“not the type of man to sit around and wait…he is a man of action, a man of bold dash and bayonet.”

New York Tribune June 27 1862

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 77

New York Tribune, June 27, 1862

“profligate and wicked and profoundly ignorant of everything other than their profession.”

John M. Palmer Mar 9 1862

Palmer, a volunteer officer and one of Pope’s commanders in the Army of the Mississippi who didn’t like Pope or West Pointers in general had this to say about them

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 72

John Palmer to wife, Mar 9, 1862, John M. Palmer II Papers, ISHL.

“Pope could not quote the ten commandments without getting ten falsehoods out of them.”

Fitz John Porter  Oct 26 1874

Fitz John Porter on John Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 72

Fitz John Porter to John P. Nicholson, Oct 26 1874, Nicholson Papers, HL;

“I regret to see that General Pope has not improved since his youth and has now written himself down as what the military world has long known, an ass.” Fitz John Porter July 17 1862

Porter  to J.C.G. Kennedy the chief of the Census Bureau

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 85

Fitz John Porter to J.C.G. Kennedy, July 17 1862, Porter Papers DLC

“His personal appearance is certainly not calculated to inspire confidence or liking.  He looks like just what we have always understood he was-a great blow hard, with no lack of confidence in his won powers.”

Robert Gould Shaw

Shaw on Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 85

Shaw, Robert Gould, Blue Eyed Child of Fortune:  The Civil War Letters of Robert Gould Shaw, ed. Russell Duncan (Athens, Ga., 1992) page 224-25

“I see the people have made a clear sacrifice of Pope and McDowell, and are now content with having killed two of their own generals.  This is a glorious war.”

William Tecumseh  Sherman

An outraged Sherman comments on the relief of John Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 200

Sherman, William T. Home Letters of General Sherman, ed. M.A. DeWolfe Howe (New York, 1909) page 233

“There was in this [address] a good deal of boasting not altogether well founded, and some almost contemptuous criticism of Eastern officers and soldiers no altogether merited, and likely to stir up among these a feeling of resentment.” Carl Schurz

Schurz responding to Pope’s military proclamation

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 85

Schurz, Carl, The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, 3 vols. (New York, 1907) vol 2:352

“John Pope was an imbecile and a coward…affected with looseness of the brains as others [are] with looseness of the bowels.” Franz Sigel

Sigel describing John Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 80

Franz Sigel, manuscript notes on Federal generals, Sigel Papers, WRHS

“He was a man of some ability, but did not have a reputation for high character in the old Army”

Moxley Sorrel August 1862

description of Pope during the Second Manassas Campaign

Sorrell, G. Moxley.  Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer. New York:  Bantam edition, 1992. Page 68

“a very agreeable and a very witty man and often turned the laugh on his staff officers and others.”

David Stanley Sloane

Sloane, one of Pope’s commanders in the Army of the Mississippi recalls him

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 72

Stanley, David S. Personal Memoirs of Major-General D.S. Stanley, USA. Cambridge Mass., 1917. Reprint Gaithersburg. 1987 page  85

 

“Those of you who have served under Pope know what a universal knowledge he had of cuss words and with what artistic ease, grace, and vim he could use them…”

Strickling,  May 30 1862

A soldier of the 39th Ohio comments on Popes profanity and witnesses Pope cussing out General Nelson

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 70

Strickling reminiscences, 16-17 OHS

“Pope is a much cleverer man than I first took him for.” David Hunter Strother June 30 1862

Strother, a journalist and skilled topographer on Popes’ staff.  His first impression of Pope in his diary

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 90

Strother, David H. A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War:  The Diaries of David Hunter Strother.  Edited by Cecil D. Eby Jr. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1961 page 64-66

“walking to and fro apart and smoking, evidently solving some problem of contradictory evidence in his mind.”

David Hunter Strother Aug 30 1862

Strother observing Pope during the Second Battle of Bull Run

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 167

Strother, David H. A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War:  The Diaries of David Hunter Strother.  Edited by Cecil D. Eby Jr. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1961 page  94-95

“I don’t care for John Pope one pinch of owl dung!” Samuel Sturgis

Sturgis to Herman Haupt after appropriating a train bound for Popes Army

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 102

Haupt, Reminiscences of General Herman Haupt. Washington, D.C., 1901 page 82-83

“A handsome man, but I don’t see the major general.”

James P. Sullivan

A soldier of the 13th Massachusetts said this about Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 84

Sullivan, James P.  An Irishman in the Iron Brigade:  The Civil War Memoirs of James P. Sullivan, ed.  William J. K. Beaudot and Lance J. Herdegen (New York, 1993) page 42

“General Pope, as I saw him, appeared to me like another one of those sound-minded, honest, patriotic and well informed soldiers.  What I learned from him caused me to believe that he understood his business and attended to it.  General Pope possessed the right conception of the American soldier, that is to say, he thought the men in ranks to be the real heroes of the war.” Marshall P. Thatcher

An orderly of Popes in the Army of the Mississippi

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 73

Thatcher, Marshall P. A Hundred Battles in the West, St. Lois to Atlanta, 1861-1865, the Second Michigan Cavalry. Detroit, 1884 page 44

“He was dark, martial, and handsome- inclined to obesity, rich garbed in civil cloth, and possessing a fiery black eye, with luxuriant beard and hair…he smoked incessantly, and talked imprudently.  His vanity was apparent, and although he was brave, clever, and educated, he inspired distrust by his much promising and general love of gossip and story telling.  He had all of Mr. Lincoln’s garrulity and none of that good old man’s unassuming common sense.” George A. Townsend

Townsend describes Pope in an interview

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 80

Townsend George Alfred. Rustics in Rebellion: A Yankee Reporter on the Road to Richmond, 1861-1865. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1950 page 191-192

“[Pope] was no doubt, an able man and good soldier, but he talked too much of himself, of what he could do and what ought to be done; and he indulged, contrary to good discipline and all propriety, in very free comments upon his superiors and fellow-commanders.” Henry Villard

A journalist talks about Pope’s indiscrete language to the press

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page 68

Villard, Henry.  Memoirs of Henry Villard, Journalist and Financier, 1835-1900. 2 vols Boston, 1904 vol I:272

 

“The general conviction here is that Pope is a failure here, and there is a belief and admission that he has not been seconded and sustained as he should have been by McClellan, Franklin, Fitz John Porter, and perhaps some others.  Personal jealousies and professional rivalries, the band and curse of all armies have entered deeply into ours.” Gideon Welles August 1862

Welles commenting after 2nd Bull Run

Mason, Jack C.  Until Antietam The Life and Letters of Major General Israel B. Richardson, U.S. Army.  Carbondale IL:  Southern Illinois Press, 2009 page 169

Welles, Gideon, Diary of Gideon Welles.  New York:  Houghton Mifflin, 1911 vol 1:104

“Everyone knew that they could do nothing else, but die-except the military imbecile sitting under the oak tree, behind the stone house on a ridge, two miles away from the enemy.”

A member of Sigel’s staff at Second Bull Run recalling Pope

Cozzens, Peter. General John Pope A Life for the Nation.  Urbana:  University of Illinois Press, 2000 page171

Lyon, James S.  War Sketches, from Cedar Mountain to Bull Run; Consisting of Personal and Historical Incidents of the Campaigns under Major General Pope in the Summer of 1862 by a Staff Officer.  Buffalo, 1882 page 30-31