eplied without hesitation, "I
should suppose not."

This confident view of things seems to have procured General Pope his
appointment, and it will soon be seen that he proceeded to conduct
military operations upon principles very different from those
announced by General McClellan. War, as carried on by General Pope,
was to be war _a l'outrance._ General McClellan had written: "The war
should not be at all a war upon population, but against armed forces
... all private property, taken for military use, should be paid for;
pillage and waste should be treated as high crimes; all unnecessary
trespass sternly prohibited, and offensive demeanor by the military
toward citizens promptly rebuked." The new commander intended to act
upon a very different principle, and to show that he possessed more
activity and resolution than his predecessor.

General Pope's assumption of the command was signalized by much pomp
and animated general orders. He arrived in a train decked out with
streamers, and issued an order in which he said to the troops: "I
desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases which I am sorry
to find much in vogue among 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 which
a soldier should desire to occupy is the one from which he can most
easily advance upon 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, and not behind. Disaster and shame look in the
rear_." The result, as will be seen, furnished a grotesque commentary
upon that portion of General Pope's order which we have italicized. In
an address to the army, he added further: "I have 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 the adversary, and beat him when
found--where policy has been attack, and not defence. I presume I have
been called here to pursue the same system."

Such was the tenor of General Pope's orders on assuming
command--orders which were either intended seriously as an
announcement of his real intentions, or as a blind to persuade the
Confederates that his force was large.

Unfortunately for the region in which he now came to operate, General
Pope did not confine himself to these flourishes of rhetoric. He
proceeded to inaugurate a military policy in v