all private property, taken for military use, should be paid for; pillage and waste should be treated as high crimes; all unnecessary trespass sternly prohibited, and offensive demeanor by the military toward citizens promptly rebuked." The new commander intended to act upon a very different principle, and to show that he possessed more activity and resolution than his predecessor.
General Pope's assumption of the command was signalized by much pomp and animated general orders.

He arrived in a train decked out with streamers, and issued an order in which he said to the troops: "I desire you to dismiss from your minds certain phrases which I am sorry to find much in vogue among you.

I hear constantly of taking strong positions and holding them, _of lines of retreat and bases of supplies_.

Let us discard such ideas.

The strongest position which a soldier should desire to occupy is the one from which he can most easily advance upon the enemy.