In a macro sense, at the start of the war it was difficult for either side to be objectively seen as the villain. One side was fighting to leave the union, the other side was fighting to preserve the union; both noble causes and both founded on miscalculations and myths. Some things about this dynamic had to change for the war to escalate. What were they and how did they move each side toward escalation?

The "By Necessity" Step-By-Step Escalation of the War

June 1861 - Ben Butler at Fortress Monroe declines to return fugitive slaves who come within his lines to their owners. Arguing that he considers them to be chattel property and contraband of war, and that their owners cannot appeal to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 because of Virginia's secession. This bizarre sanctuary program will be soon be adopted by much of the Union Army and the Union Navy.

August 1861 - Ardent abolitionist John C. Fremont, several weeks after taking command of the Department of the West, issues a proclamation imposing martial law and freeing the slaves of all owners in Missouri who refuse to swear allegiance to the Union. With little apparent regard for the national political implications of such an action, he issued his proclamation totally on his own, without even notifying the president of his intention; believing it to be a "military necessity".

August 6, 1861 - The first Confiscation Act, passed on Aug. 6, 1861, authorized Union seizure of rebel property, and it stated that all slaves who fought with or worked for the Confederate military services were freed of further obligations to their masters.

September 3, 1961 - Polk's troops cross into still neutral Kentucky and occupy Columbus and Hickman, Polk characterizes this unauthorized action as a "military necessity".

November 7, 1861 - Flag Officer Samuel Du Pont wins the Battle of Port Royal. An expedition undertaken because the Navy had concluded that it was a "military necessity" for them to establish a base of operations on the South Carolina coast. Observing developments in the region Seward notes that the revolutionary upheaval he foresaw is germinating wherever the war actually touches bottom. That where Union ships and troops came, the white people ran away and the black people stayed to raise hosannas.

November 15, 1861 - Naval Captain Charles Wilkes stops and boards the British mail ship "Trent" in the Bahama Channel. He arrests two passengers, James Mason and John Slidell, being sent to England and France as Jefferson Davis' commissioners.

December 2, 1861 - Confiscation Act of 1862 Introduced in the Senate (passed seven months later) - called for seizure of land and property from disloyal citizens (supporters of the Confederacy) in the South as well as the emancipation of slaves that come under Union control.

December 31, 1861 - Lincoln's letter to Buell articulating his grasp of the correct strategy to win the war. This will turn out to be precisely the strategy that is employed.

January 1862 - The Committee on the Conduct of the War turns up the heat on the army and the President by making the Balls Bluff fiasco into an object lesson for those in the Union army who would express pro-slavery sentiment.

January 20, 1862 - Stanton replaces Cameron as Secretary of War. Selected in part because of his radical postion that those who rebel against the government lose their claims to any type of property, including slaves, and that it was "clearly the right of the Government to arm slaves when it may become necessary as it is to use gunpowder or guns taken from the enemy".

February 15, 1862 - Ft. Donaldson surrenders. The war which had been moving so slowly had abruptly passed the first of its great turning points. Now it was going full speed. Its entire climate had changed.

March 1862 - Lincoln offers compensated emancipation to the 15 slave states and the District of Columbia. Only DC takes him up on his offer. On April 16, 1862 Lincoln signs the District of Columbia Emancipation Act.

March 8, 1862 - Lincoln had a very busy day. He gave McClellan a warning about the political dangers which surrounded him. He attended McClellan's Council of War, which went as if no warning had been given. He reorganized the Army of the Potomac naming the men who were going to be McClellan's principal lieutenants. Finally, he ordered the army to move and set up conditions under which the movement was to be made.

March 11, 1862 - McClellan is relieved of his General-In-Chief role.

April 11, 1862 - Fort Pulaski (built in 1829 - a young Robert E. Lee had been involved in its construction) surrenders after less than two days shelling from an island two miles away.

April 16, 1862 - Confederate Congress passes the first Conscription Act (all white males between 18 and 35), the first draft in American History was considered by Davis and the Congress as a military necessity..

May 15, 1862 - Butler's General Order No. 28 - A New Orleans woman showing disrespect to Union troops shall be regarded and shall be held liable to be treated as a "woman of the town plying her avocation".

June 7, 1862 - Butler's Special Order No. 70 - Execution of William Mumford

June 13, 1862 - Lincoln goes to West Point to consult with Winfield Scott, the only general who had shown thus far that he knew what the war was about. Per his advice that military necessity calls for putting all the armies under one commander, Lincoln selects Pope with Hallack's high recommendation and calls him to Washington.

June 27, 1862 Pope reluctantly assumes command of the newly christened "Army Of Virginia" but does not leave Washington until July 29th, the day that A.P. Hill arrives at Gordonsville. He stayed in Washington even though he was aware that a more worthless set of corps commanders that those he was tasked with integrating into the new Army of Virginia could hardly be imagined.

July 10, 1862 - Lincoln returns to Washington from visiting McClellan at on the Peninsula where McClellan has presented his Harrison's Landing letter to him. Lincoln directs Stanton to order Henry Halleck to Washington to be General-In-Chief.

August 25, 1862 - Lee divides his army, sending Jackson around the Union right flank to sever Pope's main supply line, the Orange & Alexandria Railroad. Lee takes this extreme risk out of "military necessity", reasoning that he must maneuver Pope into retreat in order to successfully attack him, that the current disparity between the contending forces render the risks unavoidable.

“Let us understand each other. I have come from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies; from an Army whose business it has been to seek the adversary and to beat him when he was found; whose policy has been attack and not defense. In but one instance has the enemy been able to place our western armies in defensive attitude. I presume that I have been called here to pursue the same system, and to lead you against the enemy. It is my purpose to do so, and that speedily. I am sure you long for an opportunity to win the distinction you are capable of achieving. That opportunity I shall endeavor to give you. Meantime I desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases which I am sorry to find much in vogue amongst you. I hear constantly of taking “strong position and holding them,” of “lines of retreat,” and of “bases of supplies.” Let us discard such ideas. The strongest position a soldier should desire to occupy is one from which he can most easily advance against the enemy. Let us study the probable lines of retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of themselves. Let us look before us, and not behind. Success and glory are in the advance; disaster and shame lurk in the rear. Let us act on this understanding and it is safe to predict that your banners shall be inscribed with many a glorious deed, and that your names will be dear to your countrymen forever.”

John Pope July 14 1862

Necessity Ends the Limited War

John Fremont issues his Emancipation Proclamation in August 1861, out of military necessity. Lincoln is somewhat sympathetic but rescinds it because of its potential negative impact in the border states. Ben Butler has already introduced the concept of slaves as a kind of contraband while in command of Fort Monroe. Polk crosses the border into Kentucky and occupies Hickman and Columbus, citing military necessity. Davis agrees and does not order Polk back into Tennessee. Lincoln moves Pope east and puts him in command of the Army of Virginia, having concluded that it is necessary to shift to a much more aggressive. Lee weighs his alternatives and decides to attack Pope instead of defending his current line or retreating back to Richmond, he is not compelled by his nature to go on the offense, he feels it his only real option.

Pope heard nothing regarding command of the joint armies, and assumed Halleck himself would come out of Washington to take command. Halleck had no such intention, he and everyone else in the administration hoped that Pope, with as much help from the Army of the Potomac as needed be, would prevail over the rebels. A victory by the combined forces under Pope ought to dispose of McClellan without messy political consequences. Lincoln in his more cynical moments probably felt that at the very worst the threat posed by Pope would allow him to get at least one aggressively led battle out of McClellan.

Lincoln knew of Pope's Trumpian-like character defects (lying, attention-seeking, boastful, self-promoting, brazen, amoral, imperious) before bringing him east but hoped that these would manifest themselves in a kind of animal cunning when he assumed a leadership role over the Eastern army. Lincoln having perceptively concluded that these defects often proved to be a useful skill-set for military leaders. Judson Kilpatrick would come to embody the type of leader Lincoln was looking for in the summer of 1862; with Stuart, Custer, and Sheridan more moderate versions.

Whatever other calculus Lincoln was employing in this decision he reasoned that at the very worst McClellan would feel sufficiently threatened that the North would get a least one good aggressive battle out of him.

1. In a macro sense, at the start of the war it was difficult for either side to be objectively seen as the villain. One side was fighting to leave the union, the other side was fighting to preserve the union; both noble causes and both founded on miscalculations and myths. Some things about this dynamic had to change for the war to escalate. What were they and how did they move each side toward escalation?

The Pope Moves East segment ends with the Battle of Cedar Mountain in which Banks, acting on verbal orders from Pope (which Pope later denied), attacks Jackson despite being outnumbered almost 2 to 1. Sigel and McDowell fail to support the attack. Jackson hopelessly mishandles this battle but his weight of numbers is ultimately telling and Banks. With most of the senior officers in his two divisions casualties, the shattered Corps is assigned to guard the supply trains during the upcoming battle.

1. In what ways was Cedar Mountain a mini version of how Pope would manage his army during 2nd Manassas?

2. Was it likely that Pope was lying when he claimed to have not ordered Banks to attack?

3. What did the combat performance of a second-rate Corps at Cedar Mountain indicate about the strengths and weaknesses of the Union Army?

This February program will conclude with Cedar Mountain, an engagement that should have alerted Pope to a fatal weakness in his command; his hastily assembled staff. Arriving in Washington with only a few weeks to establish command and control over three once separate armies, and with all his western army contacts hundreds of miles away, the staff he assembled for the Army of Virginia was a collection of "boot licks, toadies, politicians, and rowdies who are anything but soldiers". Certainly they were not soldiers with the contacts, skills, or interest needed to unite the three armies who suddenly found themselves part of a unified command. And the demands on Pope to stay in Washington for most of the summer of 1862 meant that he was not on the scene to familiarize himself with the troops that he was about to direct in battle.