e his operations against Richmond. To do this he
wanted fifty thousand more men, which number it was impossible to give
him, as he had already been pointedly informed by the President. On
Halleck's return to Washington, it was, on further consultation,
resolved to bring the Army of the Potomac back to Acquia Creek and unite
it with the army of Pope.

On July 30, McClellan received a preliminary order to send away his
sick, and the withdrawal of his entire force was ordered by telegraph on
August 3. With the obstinacy and persistence that characterized his
course from first to last, McClellan still protested against the change,
and when Halleck in a calm letter answered his objections with both the
advantages and the necessity of the order, McClellan's movement of
withdrawal was so delayed that fully eleven days of inestimable time
were unnecessarily lost, and the army of Pope was thereby put in serious
peril.

Meanwhile, under President Lincoln's order of June 26, General Pope had
left the West, and about the first of July reached Washington, where for
two weeks, in consultation with the President and the Secretary of War,
he studied the military situation, and on July 14 assumed command of the
Army of Virginia, consisting of the corps of General Fremont, eleven
thousand five hundred strong, and that of General Banks, eight thousand
strong, in the Shenandoah valley, and the corps of General McDowell,
eighteen thousand five hundred strong, with one division at Manassas and
the other at Fredericksburg. It is unnecessary to relate in detail the
campaign which followed. Pope intelligently and faithfully performed the
task imposed on him to concentrate his forces and hold in check the
advance of the enemy, which began as soon as the Confederates learned of
the evacuation of Harrison's Landing.

When the Army of the Potomac was ordered to be withdrawn it was clearly
enough seen that the movement might put the Army of Virginia in
jeopardy; but it was hoped that if the transfer to Acquia Creek and
Alexandria were made as promptly as the order contemplated, the two
armies would be united before the enemy could reach them. McClellan,
however, continued day after day to protest against the change, and made
his preparations and embarkation with such exasperating slowness as
showed that he still hoped to induce the government to change its plans.

Pope, despite the fact that he had managed his retreat with skill and
bravery, was