Major General John Pope (Union) Of all the union generals to have lined up against Robert E Lee&
Major General John Pope (Union) Of all the union generals to have lined up against Robert E Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, perhaps none suffered as infamous a defeat as John Pope did at the Second Battle of Bull Run. But then, none had a beard quite like this, bushy and surprisingly extensive, despite the absence of either sideburns or a moustache. Pope took command of the Union army in Virginia in the summer of 1862, as President Lincoln reacted to the failure of the famously cautious George McClellan’s efforts in the Peninsula Campaign. Pope, flush with military successes over the Confederates on the Mississippi River, promised to aggressively pursue the enemy in Virginia too. But he fell into a trap near Manassas, was hopelessly outmanoeuvred, and the Union suffered arguably its most humiliating defeat of the war. Pope was immediately sent into a virtual military exile, fighting Indian tribes in Minnesota. -- source link
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