Never Such a Campaign: The Battle of Second Manassas, August 28-August 30, 1862 (Emerging Civil War)

July, 1862. General Robert E. Lee, now in command of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, had driven back the massive Federal Army of the Potomac from the very gates of the Confederate capital.Richmond was safe - at least for the moment. But soon, new threats emerged against Lee’s army and the Confederate war effort in Virginia.Rumors swirled that a Federal command headed towards Fredericksburg, and a new Federal army, the Army of Virginia, under Maj.Gen. John Pope, was shifting operations towards Confederate communications and supply points. Pope had come from the west, where he had scored successes along the Mississippi River.He brought with him a harder philosophy of war, one that would put pressure not just on Lee’s army but on the population of Virginia itself. Not only alarmed but also offended by “such a miscreant as Pope,” Lee began moving his own forces.He intended to not just counter the new threat but to “suppress” it. In Never Such a Campaign: The Battle of Second Man