John S. Pope to Richard Yates

St Paul.

Sept 21. 62

My dear Governor.

This letter will be handed to you by Genl Roberts an old and distinguished officer in the Army who served with me throughout the Virginia Campaign & who can tell as much of that sad & shameful story as will be useful to you in your deliberations. I will not therefore go into details farther than to express to you my convictions that the country, (by which I mean our Institutions) is in more danger of destruction if MClellan be successful in his present campaign than if he be defeated. Unless you had been present in Washington and had seen & knew what I did, you can scarcely realize the condition of things. The Pretorian system is as fully developed and in as active operation in Washington as it ever was in ancient Rome. To day the thirty or forty officers who clamor about the White House of disaffection in the Army only seek the removal of one General and the replacement of another, but with success in their clamor

the demands will not be slow to increase in extent & importance & under the present system and practice as soon as they demand the removal of Lincoln and the substitution of some one else whether citizen or soldier he cannot in view of his antecedent practice refuse to abdicate & I doubt if he would do so. Already this Potomac Army clique talk openly of Lincoln's weakness & the necessity of replacing him by some stronger man of [shooting?] Wilson, Sumner Chase &c & making but one State of New England &c &c. You would be surprised & alarmed to see how openly these things are talked of by the very officers of the Potomac Army who now by their mutinous clamor control the administration.

Of my own case I have little to say. Time will correct in the public mind all error & the shameful story of neglect, & abandonment by my manifest to the country. You have doubtless read the brief official report I made which was published without my knowledge or consent. You do not know however that every statement contained in it is substantiated by documents attached to the report so that no part of it rests on my authority alone. I have only this to say

about it. Either what I state is true or it is false. If true every officer implicated from McClellan down should be shot. If false I should be subjected to the same penalty. This is the bare and naked issue I present & am ready and anxious to stand or fall by. Three hours would enable the Govt. to ascertain the facts. I urge & have urged with persistent energy the investigation. It is resisted and successfully for the present, by those charged with the crime.

The public without farther examination can readily judge from this simple state of the case where the [illegible] lies & who fear the truth. The truth is known to the Govt. I say this knowing it. Mr Lincoln himself told me that he knew several days before hand from dispatches from Fitz John Porter to McClellan, which were intercepted at the War Dept that Porter was sure to fail me. He wished to take him from the Rolls of the Army but [could?] not I suppose. Letters of the highest commendation from the Sec of War and Genl Halleck are in my possession assuring me that I had done all that mortal man could do & expressing implicit confidence in me. I declined

to serve longer with that army & told Mr Lincoln as I also did the Sec of War & Genl Halleck that I had not the slightest confidence in the ability or trustworthiness of McClellan or many of his Generals. That they would at any time betray the country & abandon their comrades in the face of the enemy where their own personal purposes were to be served. Mr Lincoln and the War Dept. know well McClellans's atrocious withholding of troops & supplies and were very indignant about it to the extent of deciding that he should never have a command again. Of this you can inform yourself through almost any member of the Cabinet, Seward & Blair excepted. The clamor of a certain faction of officers allied to McClellan; fortunes induced the President to believe that the Potomac Army would only serve under McClellan & notwithstanding the atrocious facts charged against him & others & which the President knows to be true, he was placed in command & the other officers continued in their [illegible] without the knowledge of his Cabinet & against their deliberate action of only a day previous. These are facts easily verified

They show you what sort of action prevails & what we are to expect. My error has been (viewed by McClellan & his followers, the semi treasonable papers & people of this country) that I wished in [earnest?] & sincerity of purpose to make war upon the Rebels. I was from the west and an interloper in the Army of the Potomac neither to be bribed nor frightened & I must if possible be ruined. I looked to the West where I have served honorably to protect me from an infamous conspiracy as dangerous to our liberties as to my own reputation. I shall face the investigation if possible but under present circumstances I doubt whether it will ever be made.

I do not venture to suggest what your action in the meeting you are about to hold at Altoona should be. I only express to you my firm conviction that unless the present system with its leaders be swept away & the Administration relieved from the Pretorian control which now dominates over it our Government is not worth a day's purchase.

A man has read History in vain who does not know that it is impossible to encamp a great army around the capital of a nation, & maintain it there a whole year in [illegible], without corrupting the Army as well as the Government. Whether the persistent resolution with which the commander of the Army of the Potomac refused to advance against a greatly inferior enemy badly posted, & the determination with which that Army was held back in the force of the powerful influences urging its action were based upon knowledge of this fact remains a matter of opinion, but that the effect of alienating this Army from the people of the country, weakening if not destroying all sympathy & affiliation between it and the States which put it into the field, quenching all its enthusiasm & educating it to fight for individuals & not for principles or for Government, has been fully accomplished, no man who has served with the Army of the Potomac can fail to see, with apprehension and sorrow. The very organization of this Army was made with such a view & it is openly proclaimed by those who effected it, that it was designed to put an end to all State notions or local ties & to make a consolidated Army aside from popular influence or from local

responsibility. You will remember that the first proposition was to make a "Grand National Union Army" where States should not appear in the organization. That instead of the 10th Regt from Illinois we should have the 100th U.S. Infantry, instead of the 16th Massachusetts we should have then 90th U.S. Infantry &c. & that the promotions should be made as in the regular Army. By this time if such an organization had been adopted, we should have had a regiment from Illinois commanded by a Col (perhaps) from New Jersey, a Lieut Col. from Maine, a Major from Missouri & Captains & Lieutenants from every State of the Union. All local ties and attachments, all responsibility of every kind to the people who sent them forth would have been lost & we should now have had a great machine subject only to the order of its Commander. Fortunately & wisely Congress refused its assent but the nearest approach has been made to such an organization that was possible. It is & has been a fixed rule in the Potomac Army not to put two regiments from the same state into one Brigade so that as

that army now stands the regiments composing it have completely lost their identity. They belong not to Massachusetts or Illinois or Ohio but to the 1st Brigade, of the 2nd Division, of the 5th Army Corps. It is the reputation of a certain Brigade made up from every where that they fight, not for the State or the community which sent them to the field. Once destroy the local ties & attachments of the members of any military force & the sense of responsibility for their action to their friends & neighbors and you have taken the first step (and it is a long one) towards consolidation under military rule. The centrifugal force which exists such consolidation is to be found in the State pride, the local attachments & the influences of friends & home. You know that in the West we have understood and acted upon this principle. Whether the persistence with which the opposite course has been insisted on by the military authorities in the Potomac, has been an error of judgement or the result of well understood purpose, every man is at liberty to think as he pleases. Whatever the intention the result has been accomplished and we see in

the history of the past few weeks, and the action of the Administration under Military clamor the worst consequences of such a State of things.

Whether it has been deliberately planned or not, it must be controlled or destroyed now or evil days are upon us.

Let me be distinctly understood.

Our Government and our Institutions must at all hazards be preserved & this Rebellion put down. No half way measures will answer for this purpose. We must make war, with this sole & only purpose & we must use all means, whether black or white to accomplish this object. War means desolation and death, and it is neither humanity nor wisdom to carry it as upon any other theory. The more bitter it is made to the delinquents the sooner it will end. Whilst the laws of war are to be carefully & strictly observed, they surely need no lenient modifications when we [illegible] or traitors who seek to destroy our Government & plunge millions of our people unto all the horrors of anarchy and political disintegration. Every thing that stands in the

way of such a war must be set aside or [overturned?]. We must preserve the Govt. pure and undefiled or we are lost as a people. It is not alone the rebels in arms we are to contend against. We must also meet and overcome thousands of enemies among ourselves. We must detect & check at the very outset abuses which arise necessarily under such a state of things as now exists in this country. Among our most fearful dangers is the rapid [illegible] of the military [power?], and as thousands of instances in History have made manifest to us, the gradual submission of our civil Government, by undue influence of military factions & leaders. The continuance of the influence which now prevails at Washington threatens our Government far more than the Rebels in arms. It is the [illegible] [dangers?] that it represents the interest in this country most favorable to Southern traitors. It represents inaction or war so mild & peaceable as not to merit the name. It represents the expenditure of untold wealth, & the indefinite prolongation of hostilities. With these follow necessarily increased control of the

military over the Civil Departments, increased separation from their homes & home feelings and influences of the great hosts of men sent forth to fight for our Government; increased danger of the utter demoralization of our people and finally danger if not certainly of the final overthrow of our liberties by the very armies we marshalled for their defense. We must make, quick vigorous & aggressive war upon the Enemy, equally speedy & vigorous war upon the Pretorian factions which now threaten our destruction by undermining and corrupting the Administration of the Government.

Forever come & destroy utterly the malign military influences which war render honor & duty a [illegible] & reproach, which paralyze the army of the Patriotic soldier, which seek personal & not national ends, which point plainly in every action to concession & not punishment, should be the first and great mission of your convention. The people are right and true. The Administration designs to be so but is controlled through fear of the fall of the Capital, by influences which threaten to withdraw support unless their clamors

are complied with. In what respect does our present condition differ from the signs which have always preceded the dissolution of a Govt.? How long will it be before the military factions (as in a thousand past instances in History) demand another ruler and then another until the seat of Washington shall be occupied by a military despot. Or by a creature of the military power. It is against this danger we now need most protection. The occurrences of the past few weeks must make the danger plain to you. A [man?] high [illegible] & command, charged with offences the basest the most criminal and most dangerous to his country, whose crime if not fully known, in all its enormity, is fully believed by the Administration cannot be tried is removed from his command as consequence of threats of the military factions in his interest, not to fight for the Government in its time of danger. This is our enemy & upon this enemy first of all I urge you to war to the death. If it be not destroyed before it is too strong our Government and our liberties are gone from us for ever.

Very truly yours Jno Pope

Hon Richard Yates Gov of Ills.

Maj. Genl. John Pope St. Paul. Sept. 21 - 62

Private

Important!

State of Illinois Executive Department Springfield 186__