Thursday, June 20, 2013

July 27, 1862---On General Pope: "His headquarters are where his hindquarters ought to be."



JULY 27, 1862:            

Robert E. Lee sends 48,000 more troops to Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. 


Lee is outraged at Union General John Pope’s recent spate of abusive Field Orders and writes to Jackson:

I want Pope to be suppressed. The course indicated in his orders, if the newspapers report them correctly, cannot be permitted and will lead to retaliation on our part. You had better notify him the first opportunity.” 

This sort of behavior and rhetoric from Pope leads General Lee to label him a “miscreant.” 

Pope had a habit of concluding dispatches saying that his “headquarters are in the saddle.”  Wits in response said that his headquarters were where his hindquarters ought to be.  



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