General Orders Number 103 arrived on the 26th of June 1862. This document dissolved four separate departments into one massive fighting force known as the Army of Virginia.
Major General John Pope received command over this newly formed organization. The army began with three corps containing more than 50,000 men under his direct orders.
Senior officers within the ranks advocated strongly for abolishing slavery and destroying the southern way of life. A smaller proportion of West Point graduates served among these officers compared to George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac.
The entire army suffered a sound defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run during August 1862. Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. Jackson, and James Longstreet coordinated the Confederate victory over Pope's forces.
On the 12th of September 1862, the units of the Army of Virginia were merged into the Army of the Potomac. This administrative action dissolved the organization permanently as it was never reconstituted afterward.