The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-17
THE LATE WAR.
GENERAL PoPE's n D-ospArcHEs-uow THEY WEIR
PUbLish 81 BY GENERAL HALLEcK.

'hNhHAn rOrh D,osPATCHBs-HOw THEY WERE
PUBLISH 81 BY GENERAL HALLEcK.
IRON tHe 4reVJ York Evening Post, Mayl6.
Ihe Supplemental report of the Congress
eional Committee on the Conduct of the War
VIII set at rest some vexed questions. Among
these is one affecting the character of General
Pope. The facts developed by the Committee
have long been known to General Pope's supe-
riors, and account for the confidence reposed
in him by them, as shown in his appointment
to successive positions Of high responsibility.
This officer has, for nearly five years, rested
under the imputation of having sent a bOastful
despatch = known commonly as the 'fTen
thousand prisoners despatch''-in June, 1861
for whose statements there was little or no
foundation. How little reason there was
for this damaging imputation is now obvious
from the correspondence furnished the Com
mittee. u.
When the Rebels evacuated Corinth in June,
1862, General POpe's command, which had
been and continued to be the vanguard of
General Halleck's army, was sent south of
that place in pursuit of the retTeating enemy.
The day after General Pope's command
reached its permanent camp on Clear creek,
the 18th Of June, he saw in Northern papers a
despatch from General Halleck, saying
General Pope, with 10000 men, is thirty
miles south of Corinth, pushing the enemy
hard. He already reports 10000 prisoners and
$4,000 stand of arms captured" " etc.
General Pope denies that he ever sent any
such report. In the first place, instead Of
being 'thirty miles south of Corinth," he was
sick in his tent at the date of the despatch of
General Halleck, not four miles from the head
quarters of the latter at COrinth, and in tele-
graphic communication with him from the I'd
to the 9TH Of June, as his despatch books will
show. No reports were forwarded by General
Pope to General 7Halleek, except abstracts of
such as were sent the former by couriers from
Generals Resecrans and Granger, in the.
But one despatch was sent General Halleck
which mentions numbers at all. This gave
the substance of advices from Roseorans and
Hamilton, to the effect that the enemy were
retreating, and concluded with a report from
Rosecrans, embodied in these two sentences:-
''The woods for miles are full of stragglers
from the enemy, who are coming in in squads.
Not less than 10000, men are thus scattered
about who will come in within a day or two" -,
On this slender and altogether insufficient
basis, General Halleck-perhaps smarting over
the inglorious termination of his only field
campaign-published to the world the famous
'ten thousand prisoners despatch" F" fathering
it upon General Pope. The latter was
naturally surprised and vexed, but was
called Immediately to Washington, where as
he says, "His relations to him General Hal
leck) needed to be so close and harmonious,
in the face of the extraordinary difficulties
which confronted us, that it would have
shown neither wisdom nor patriotism to have
opened q controversy at that time.''
The public reasons for silence having ceased,
General Pope-when giving his report to the
Committee in 1965-deemed it proper that the
whole truth should be known. Accordingly
he submitted his statement, copies of the
dispatches bearing on the case, and cores
pondence with General HallecB.
On the Sd of July, 1865, he addressed a
note, dated at Washington to General Halleck,
on the subject, requesting a copy of any
report made by the former, upon the authority
of which the despatch was sent. General
Halleck replies, at Washington, that his des-
patches were boxed up for transportation to
California. l G.rE.u T
Thereupon General Pope disposes very
effectually of the evasion, by bringing out the
real cause of it. 1t seems that at st. Louis
there are complete army records for the last
thirty years. That is, they were complete
until they suffered mutilation by order of
General Halleck, who when he left to assume
command at Washington, took with him that
part of the dispatches and reports which con-
cerned the operations around Corinth. These,
it is asserted, were cut out of the official book
| and taken to Washington. .r.