John Pope wasn’t quite done yet… and on this day, 150 years ago, he released another general order of interest…
GENERAL ORDERS No. 11.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF VIRGINIA,
Washington, July 23, 1862.Commanders of army corps, divisions, brigades, and detached commands will proceed immediately to arrest all disloyal male citizens within their lines or within their reach in rear of their respective stations.
Such as are willing to take the oath of allegiance to the United States and will furnish sufficient security for its observance shall be permitted to remain at their homes and pursue in good faith their accustomed avocations. Those who refuse shall be conducted South beyond the extreme pickets of this army, and be notified that if found again anywhere within our lines or at any point in rear they will be considered spies, and subjected to the extreme rigor of military law.
If any person, having taken the oath of allegiance as above specified, be found to have violated it, he shall be shot, and his property seized and applied to the public use.
All communication with any person whatever living within the lines of the enemy is positively prohibited, except through the military authorities and in the manner specified by military law; and any person concerned in writing or in carrying letters or messages in any other way will be considered and treated as a spy within the lines of the United States Army.
By command of Major-General Pope:
GEO. D. RUGGLES,
Colonel, Assistant Adjutant-General, and Chief of Staff.
That one part… “will proceed immediately to arrest all disloyal male citizens within their lines or within their reach in rear of their respective stations” gets sticky, even for Southern Unionists.
So, how did these general orders go beyond words on paper? That’s coming up.
John Hennessy
July 24, 2012
Robert: This and other orders by Pope were often seen as the deeds of a simply obnoxious personality. Not so (though I am not claiming Pope wasn’t a bit off-kilter). They were the manifestation of carefully considered policy, originating not with Pope, but with Stanton and the administration. The background on Order 11 was the recent capture of a cache of papers with John Imboden’s name on them, outlining a vision for partisan warfare that included men riding a night and filtering back into the community by day. Order 11 was a way of combating that….
Order 11 did much to enrage Southerners, though its practical impact was…wait…you’re going to talk about that next….
Robert Moore
July 24, 2012
Thanks, John. Your comment is timely and covers a gap in my post… and with my copy of Return to Bull Run within my grasp… meaning full-well to use it before now… I should have known better.
What’s also interesting is how Pope’s orders were viewed, at the time. As you may have gathered, I’m generally all about perspective, and usually from the bottom-up (starting with the common person at the point of impact), rather than the top down. I’m pretty sure you know where I’m taking this in the next post, but, from the folks in my home county (and even across the Massanutten in New Market), Pope wasn’t the name on their lips. Rather, they had a greater bitterness for… Von Steinwehr and Sigel. It was folks outside the area who got a better sense of how this trickled down to Von Steinwehr’s level, including Page County native, Gen. Thomas Jordan, who was out in Mississippi at the time.
Thanks for taking the time to comment.