General John Pope: A Life for the Nation

by Peter Cozzens

Ambitious and outspoken, John Pope was one of the most controversial figures to hold high command during the Civil War, Reconstruction, and in the American West. General John Pope: A Life for the Nation is the first full biography of this much maligned figure who played crucial roles in both the Eastern and the Western Theaters of the Civil War.

Renowned Civil War scholar Peter Cozzens has mined Pope's own memoirs and a wealth of other primary sources to provide a complete picture of this gifted strategist. Uncovering new information about Pope's pre- and postwar career and his path to power, Cozzens delineates the political environment that surrounded Pope and provided the context for his actions.

Cozzens examines Pope's early career first as commander of the Army of the Mississippi and then as leader of a hastily formed Army of Virginia against Robert E. Lee. After his famous defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Pope was sent to the frontier. There he held important commands on the western plains over the next twenty-four years, all the while struggling to clear his reputation of the events at Second Bull Run. A principal architect of the Red River War, which broke the resistance of the Southern Plains Indians, Pope espoused humanitarian treatment of subjugated tribes and was recognized as one of the army's leading authorities on Indian affairs.

In place of the simplistic caricature that has satisfied most historians, Cozzens has crafted an accurate, humane, balanced portrait of a complex man involved with the most complex issues of his day. A monumental work on a long-neglected figure, General John Pope offers a fresh look at a key nineteenth-century military leader as well as the most detailed analysis available of Federal leadership during the Second Bull Run campaign.

Genres: Civil War, Biography

412 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2000

About the author

Peter Cozzens is the award-winning author of seventeen books on the American Civil War and the West. Cozzens is also a retired Foreign Service Officer.

His most recent book is A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023). Cozzens's next book is Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West (Knopf: September 2025).

Cozzens's penultimate book, Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation, was published by Knopf in October 2020. It won the Western Writers of America Spur Award and was a finalist for the George Washington Prize.

His The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West was published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2016. Amazon selected it as a Best Book of November 2016. Smithsonian Magazine chose it as one of the ten best history books of 2016. It has won multiple awards, including the Gilder-Lehrman Prize for the finest book on military history published worldwide. It also was a London Times book of the year and has been translated into several languages, including Russian and Chinese.

All of Cozzens' books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, History Book Club, and/or the Military Book Club.

Cozzens’ This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga and The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga were both Main Selections of the History Book Club and were chosen by Civil War Magazine as two of the 100 greatest works ever written on the conflict.

The History Book Club called his five-volume Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars "the definitive resource on the military struggle for the American West."

His Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign was a Choice "Outstanding Academic Title" for 2009.

He was a frequent contributor to the New York Times "Disunion" series, and he has written articles for Smithsonian Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, True West, America's Civil War, Civil War Times Illustrated, and MHQ, among other publications.

In 2002 Cozzens received the American Foreign Service Association’s highest award, given annually to one Foreign Service Officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent.

Cozzens is a member of the Advisory Council of the Lincoln Prize, the Western Writers Association, the Authors' Guild, and the Army and Navy Club.

Cozzens and his wife Antonia Feldman reside in Maryland.

Reviews

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A readable, traditional biography of Pope. Cozzens does not attempt to rehabilitate Pope’s reputation, and Pope the braggart, the blame-shifter, and the liar jumps out from the pages, as well as Pope’s poor relations with his men and his inability to bear a huge amount of responsibility.

Cozzens argues that Pope had one of the most difficult assignments of the war, having to take three beaten, demoralized armies under the checkered leadership of Banks, Sigel, and McDowell, and both screen Washington and attack Lee’s army at the same time. Pope would have to cooperate with McClellan (who felt that Pope deserved to be defeated), obey the contradictory orders of Halleck (whom Cozzens criticizes the most), and without any cavalry or prior knowledge of the region’s terrain. To top it off, it was Pope’s first command stint and his opponent would be Lee.

Cozzens judges Pope to be an able administrator and an aggressive commander, one that would later have good grasp of strategy. Pope would experience success in Minnesota against the Indians and as a military governor in the Reconstruction era. Both Grant and Sherman valued Pope’s ability and it’s possible that Cozzens suggests that Pope might have had more success if he had never been ordered to leave the western theater.

However, Cozzens never summarizes his arguments anywhere, Pope’s pre-war life is given less than fifty pages, and the book seems a bit short on analysis. Still, a balanced, well-written biography.

[Kosar7480 · Rating 4 out of 5]

My knowledge of Pope before reading this book was essentially his role in the Second Manassas debacle. Cozzen's book obviously touches on Pope's promotion to this new command, his role of uniting three disparate Union armies together, and the ensuring clash that occurred. There wasn't much new ground covered on those topics and, in all honestly, the book places less emphasis on these events that I expected.

This was in keeping with the author's desire to show how Pope devoted his entire career to serving the country and here is where this book truly succeeds. Cozzens paints a picture of Pope's evolution from a precocious and fairly obnoxious junior officer into a seasoned military administrator. I enjoyed the sections covering his Mexican War service and early Civil War service in the West. It was also interesting to learn that Pope had clear political connections to Lincoln and several of his Cabinet members, even accompanying the President east for his inauguration. These factors, combined with his politics, almost made it a foregone conclusion that he would be appointed to a significant command in the east - much to his own chagrin. Cozzens pulls no punches in showing that Pope fell far short as a battlefield commander.

Rather than the story ending with Pope being "banished" to resolve Indian issues in the upper Midwest, the later half of the book shows how Pope proved far more effective in this role. His competence as a department commander led to various other responsibilities and positions coming his way as an administrator. Cozzens also delves into Pope's evolution as an advocate for reform of federal policy towards Native Americans as well as military education at West Point. The fact that both Grant and Sherman hold Pope in fairly high regard goes a long way to redeeming his reputation, as does this book.

Ultimately, the Pope who emerges from this text is one who served the country faithfully and matured into a more effective soldier as he aged. If only he could have let go of the feud with Fitz John Porter...

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate good biography - I especially appreciate biographies of challenging historic figures. For many students of US History and Civil War History, John Pope is a caricature - the bombastic general who was defeated by Lee at the Battle of 2nd Manassas after sending out a general order to his army that Pope came from the west, where they only view the backs of their enemies.
Noted Civil War historian Peter Cozzens does not shy from the challenging parts of John Pope - his arrogance, his willingness to blame failure on subordinates, his inability to let go of grudges, and his command failures in the 2nd Manassas campaigns.
At the same time, though, Cozzens provides real depth to Pope as a historical figure - his early successful campaigns in the West at the beginning of the Civil War that included the capture of Island Number 10 and aided with the Corinth campaign. Pope's role in the suppression of the Sioux Indians in Minnesota and the Dakotas is important in its own right, but also offers a pivot to an important element of Pope's career - his work commanding frontier departments where he played a key role in planning campaigns against the Plains Indians and his efforts to shape US policy with regards to the Native Americans of the Great Plains.
In the process, Cozzens helps us to appreciate Pope's important contributions and insights into the frontier in the post-Civil War era. Cozzens also deals with some other important elements of Pope's career - his role in reconstruction as one of the military district commanders in the south and his connection with key political figures such as Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Jacob Cox, and John Logan.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid summary of the life of John Pope. Obviously, Second Bull Run is a substantial portion of the book. His feud with Fitz-John Porter over that officer's performance during that battle runs through the last chapter of the book.

I was unaware of his progressive ideas for dealing with Native Americans. His early effirts after being sent west were largely ignored because Lincoln and Stanton were preoccupied with winning the Civil War. his continuing efforts to improve how the Plains Indians were treated might have led to a better outcome today if only his ideas had been implemented.

I like a book written with useful vocabulary and I've picked up some new words in my reading. This author occasionally sticks in a word useful only on the SAT. I will never us the word perspicacity, and there was no reason to use that word in this book, just one of several examples.

[David Engel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although general Pope was a bit too confident in his own counsel and a bit overwhelmed during the Second Manassas campaigned, leading to the disaster that was the second battle of Bull Run, my opinion of him was expanded by the reading of this biography. Truly, he was among the first to appreciate the depredations we perpetrated upon the Native Americans and sought to minimize their plight during his post bellum service.

[Michael Cawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written biography of Civil War General John Pope

[W Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I went into this book thinking John Pope a fool. Author Cozzens puts that to rest while at the same time pointing our Pope’s lengthy shortcomings, particularly with respect to Second Manassas. I really thought this was a very good book. Cozzens demonstrates how Pope evolved over his lifetime from a young man trying to find himself to a much improved older man. This is well worth the read.

[Josh Liller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up to better understand General Pope since my monthly history presentation for next month is Second Bull Run (Second Manassas). I knew Cozzens was a well-regarded Civil War author, but I also learned recently he has also written about the post-Civil War American West and edited Pope's memoirs.

I expected this to be a negative biography; Pope is much criticized for his performance during the Second Bull Run campaign and his feud with Fitz-John Porter stemming from the battle. As a result, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Cozzens has no problem finding fault with Pope: the aforementioned issues, plus Pope's generally arrogant behavior especially prior to the war. But Cozzens does not hesitate to fault others deserving of criticism, at Second Bull Run and elsewhere. Cozzens also thinks highly of much of Pope's work in the west with the Indians.

The portrait that emerges is a ambitious, intelligent, dedicated, but flawed soldier.

(The book's subtitle is a reference to Pope's longevity with the army: he entered West Point at age 16 and served in the army without interruption until age-mandated retirement at age 65.)

[Schoppie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cozzens has written a fine biography of General John Pope! While he was not the best battlefield general (Cozzens fully details his failings at the Second Battle of Manassas and his unfair treatment of Fitz John Porter in the aftermath), Pope was nevertheless as good general, a great administrator, and a fine frontier leader against the Plains Indians. In the case of the latter, he was also an advocate of reform and fair treatment for the Native-Americans (albeit, once they has been subjugated). While the bulk of the book is about Second Manassas, the author also details Pope's pre-war and post-war service on the frontier. Pope was an able Civil War general, at least in the West, but his most important service (and the service which helped to wipe away the stain of Second Manassas) was against the Lakota and Cheyenne on the Great Plains. It is often a stated goal of historians to write history "warts-and-all," with the result that the warts are emphasized. Cozzens achieves the proper balance, and shows John Pope with all of his failings and all of his talents! If you are looking for a good biography of this often-overlooked general, give this one a try!