The Court-Martial of General John Pope
206 pages
English

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206 pages
English

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Description

This book, which takes a bold new look at the Second Manassas Campaign, is full of surprises, including a mistaken mountain, a warning that never was, and Pope's real plan for entrapping Stonewall Jackson. It contains an amazing Union supporting cast that includes a train-stealing renegade general, another general who was sent to reinforce Pope but who nevertheless sought to abandon him on the eve of battle, and another Union general who gloated over what he foresaw as Pope's imminent battlefield defeat and then not surprisingly repeatedly delayed the forwarding of reinforcements to Pope. No, 'The Court-Martial of General John Pope' is not alternate history. And, no, the many startling insights and new discoveries within this book are not fictions, even though they are presented within the framework of a fictional trial taking place in the afterlife.

It seems that the much maligned Union general John Pope has demanded a trial in order to once and for all clear his military reputation from 150 years of accumulated slights, slanders, and misconceptions. And who is defending Pope in the Valhalla Courthouse; none other than that peerless American defense attorney Clarence Darrow.

The packed courtroom blazes with electricity and occasionally thunders in outrage as the wily Darrow pulls one white rabbit after another out of his well-stocked magician's hat in a performance that rivals his very best. But Darrow has his work cut out for him as he faces a tribunal as daunting as any that ever sat in judgment at Nuremberg, packed as it is with the ablest generals of history. Ranging across the centuries from Alexander the Great to America's George S. Patton, these masters of the military art have—like all others—long considered Pope to be a laughingstock.

Equally entertaining are the events outside the courtroom as twice each day three noted members of the press corps—including Mark Twain and Nellie Bly—furiously debate among themselves the merits of Darrow's long string of revelations. Readers can enjoy the excitement of courtroom drama as they thrill to some of the most startling discoveries in Civil War history in recent times and discover one of the fiercest but least known rivalries in American history.

This is because 'Court-Martial' boasts as its centerpiece a rivalry that was perhaps the most fascinating and devastating in American history: the fierce competition between Union General John Pope, the darling of the radical Republicans, and Union General George McClellan, the military standard bearer of the conservative Democratic Party and later Abraham Lincoln's Democratic opponent for President in 1864. 'Court-Martial' convincingly demonstrates for perhaps the first time the true depth and terrible impact of this fateful rivalry.

Competing with the Pope-McClellan rivalry for attention, however, is the drama of the controversy that spurred one of the most celebrated and politically volatile courtroom battles of the latter half of the 19th Century, the fifteen-year conflict between John Pope and the general officer who was court-martialed and drummed out of the army for not giving Pope his full support at Second Manassas—Major General Fitz John Porter, noted friend and protégé of George McClellan.

The often amazing evidence brought forward by Darrow in his client's defense is well corroborated by over 300 end notes. Some historians and Civil War aficionados may object to the placement of this new evidence inside a dramatic fictional story. But given the degree to which John Pope's military reputation has unintentionally been misrepresented and the 130 years for which this has gone on, it was felt that, in order to shake the public's long frozen opinion of John Pope free from its icebound state, the setting of a trial and the skills of an advocate of the caliber of Clarence Darrow were required.

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Informations

Publié par
Date de parution 21 février 2013
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9781456605216
Langue English
Poids de l'ouvrage 1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0150€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The Court-Martial of General John Pope
Correcting Some of the Misconceptions About
The Second Bull Run Campaign
 
 
By Steven E. Condon


Copyright © 2011 Steven E. Condon
Registered with the U.S. Copyright Office
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0521-6
 
Condon, Steven E., 1952-
The Court-Martial of General John Pope
 
History-Military/United States; History-United States/Civil War Period (1850-1877); Fiction-Historical.
 
Cover Designer: Steven E. Condon
Cover Portrait of John Pope © Copyright Emily C-D 2010
 
The Views and opinions expressed by Clarence Darrow and the other characters in this fictional tale are not necessarily those of the author.
 
Readers are encouraged to ignore the numerous endnotes scattered throughout the text and just enjoy the story. The endnotes, which are mostly just page numbers to sources listed in the References, are there for historians and true Civil War aficionados. Readers do not need to read them in order to comprehend the story and are more apt to take pleasure in the tale if they don’t stop after every other paragraph to look up an endnote.
 
All maps © Steven E. Condon, 2010, 2011.
 
Author’s Note
 
The locality of the afterlife known as Valhalla is, of course, fictional, as is also the trial taking place there. However the discoveries about Union General John Pope and the Second Manassas Campaign that are described in this novel are real discoveries made by this author over a period of several years of research into the topic. There is nothing fictional about anything appearing in the endnotes to this book.
Some would claim that the mistaken mountain and the non-existent August 22 nd warning from Halleck to Pope should more properly be termed theories rather than discoveries, and I would not argue with those who wish to refer to them as such. I would contend, however, that the reference to Buck Mountain in Pope’s August 25 th evening telegram to Halleck, together with the geography of Buck Mountain, Big Cobbler Mountain, and Stonewall Jackson’s route from Orleans to Salem on August 25 th , provide very significant hard evidence that one of Pope’s observers—most likely Colonel Clark—did indeed confuse Big Cobbler Mountain with Buck Mountain and that this faulty military intelligence seriously misled Pope as to the probable destination of the mysterious enemy column, as well as to its possible threat to his rear, and when that threat might take effect.
Pope’s marching orders to Kearny and Reno on the night of August 26 th , at a time when he still believed that Manassas Junction had been attacked by merely Confederate cavalry and that the threat of enemy infantry in his rear was still some hours distant, clearly demonstrate that, had he known at sunset on August 25 th that the mysterious enemy column was on the east base of Big Cobbler Mountain rather than Buck Mountain, he would have moved significant forces to Gainesville or Thoroughfare Gap to protect his rear areas in time to forestall Jackson’s attack on the evening of August 26 th . Pope was far from being the hesitant, negligent, and foolish army commander that historians have long portrayed him to have been.
The uncanny similarity between, on the one hand Halleck’s supposed August 22 nd warning to Pope, and on the other hand Halleck’s August 27 th warning to Pope, requires some explanation. I believe that my explanation is the only credible one. The contents and the transmission route of the August 22 nd telegram make entirely no sense for August 22 nd but make perfect sense for August 27 th .
Any who may be in doubt as to the author’s sincerity in presenting these discoveries—those who may suspect that this book is written in the vein of Ben and Me and that this author is speaking with tongue well in cheek when he writes the above statements—can without too much trouble verify most of the evidence cited by Clarence Darrow in support of his client in this fictional trial. This is because the vast majority of this evidence comes from documents contained within fairly accessible sources—documents which have long been known to historians (and to their more attentive readers) but unfortunately evidence which has been repeatedly overlooked or misinterpreted.
A modest bit of web surfing, for example, will turn up the tale of the 12 th Pennsylvania Cavalry, as found in Samuel P. Bates’ History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5 , published by the State of Pennsylvania in 1870. Many college and university libraries, as well as the main libraries of many large cities in the United States, will have copies of Volumes XI and XII of the War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1885). Most of the dispatches, telegrams, and post-battle reports cited by Clarence Darrow are taken from Volumes XI and XII of the OR . McClellan’s letters to his wife can be found in The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan: Selected Correspondence, 1860-1865 (Stephen W. Sears, ed., Da Capo Press, New York, 1992; previously published in 1989 by Ticknor and Fields), a book which many public libraries will have. A few important records, such as Fitz John Porter’s letters to Manton Marble, his letter to Burnside containing the words “Would to God I could go back to you,” and his “…We pray for it” telegram to George McClellan, may unfortunately require a trip to the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress, although you may in some cases be able to obtain the relevant microfilm reels via interlibrary loan, as I did for some of this work.
Some historians and Civil War aficionados may object to the placement of this new evidence inside a dramatic fictional story instead of placing it within the traditional setting of a purely non-fictional military campaign study. But given the degree to which John Pope’s military reputation has unintentionally been misrepresented and the 130 years for which this has gone on, it was felt that, in order to shake the public’s long frozen opinion of John Pope free from its icebound state, the setting of a trial and the skills of an advocate of the caliber of Clarence Darrow were required. John Pope was “court-martialed” after the Second Manassas Campaign, but the trial took place in the courtroom of history rather than before a military tribunal. This book represents Pope’s second day in court, something that has been a long time in coming. To those who consider this placement of fact in the context of dramatic fiction to be unfortunate, we beg your indulgence and hope that you enjoy this tale nevertheless.
 
Manchester, New Hampshire
September 2011
 
 
Ben and Me , Robert Lawson’s classic 1939 children’s book (and later Walt Disney’s 1953 animated two-reel short subject of the same name) purports to be the memoir, written by Amos the mouse, a purported friend of Benjamin Franklin and one who claims in his memoir to have been the brains of the mouse-man team and the true one responsible for most of the accomplishments claimed by Benjamin Franklin. It was a long time ago that I read the book and I was one of those children who was taken in by Lawson’s Amos.
 
Morning of Day 1: Flint Hill
“He doesn’t stand a chance,” said Ernie, stuffing some popcorn into his mouth.
“One should never discount a defendant’s chances, Mr. Peale, when he has such an able advocate as Clarence Darrow defending him,” said Alistair Cooke, sitting in front of and a little below Ernie in the press box.
“I’m betting on Darrow to sway the judges,” said Nellie. “He could convince you that it was raining chocolate milk if he tried.” Nellie reached into Ernie’s bag, while gazing fixedly at the defendant, who was sitting beside Darrow at the table they shared on the other side of the courtroom. But Nellie was very hungry, having had no breakfast that morning, and she grabbed too big a handful of popcorn. As some kernels slipped from her hand, she squeezed tighter so as not to lose any more. Several pieces shot out of Nellie’s hand and into the back the head of Edward R. Murrow, the man sitting in front of her. Murrow, a reporter noted among other things for broadcasting live radio reports during the Luftwaffe’s World War II bombing of London, turned angrily on Nellie and fixed her with a steely gaze.
In the confusion Mark Twain reached forward and stole some popcorn from Ernie’s bag. Twain smiled and shared some of it with the man on his left, Roman historian Gaius Cornelius Tacitus. “Yah, that Darrow sure is a sly one,” said Twain. “He can make as many sparks fly as old Tesla.”
Tacitus gladly accepted the popcorn offered to him and said to Twain, “I’m not sure I agree, Mark. I’m inclined to think that this group of judges will prove an extremely intractable audience for Mr. Darrow. Containing as it does three or four of the best generals in history, it is not likely to forgive or overlook the faults of so noted a military bungler as your country’s John Pope.”
“We’ll see, Gaius,” replied Twain, “We’ll see.”
The main courtroom in the Valhalla Courthouse was packed for the first day of the hearing. Occupying the stadium like seating reserved for members of the media were numerous famous reporters and writers from history. At the right end of the second row of the press box immediately in front of Twain sat Elizabeth Jane Cochran, pioneer female journalist of the late 19 th century who wrote under the pen name Nellie Bly. On her left sat globetrotting World War II correspondent Ernie Peale. In front of Peale sat the astute but always kindly looking Alfred Alistair Cooke, for 58 years the host of the BBC news show entitled Letter from America and for many years the host of PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre .
The courtroom was a large, sloping auditorium divided into four sections by a central aisle and two side aisles. The ranks of the audience displayed a wide rang

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