Special Order 191
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Special Order 191 (series 1862), also known as the "Lost Dispatch" and the "Lost Order", was a general movement order issued by
Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...
General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...
Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...
on about September 9, 1862, during the
Maryland Campaign The Maryland campaign (or Antietam campaign) occurred September 4–20, 1862, during the American Civil War. The campaign was Confederate States Army, Confederate General (CSA), General Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Northern United Stat ...
of the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
. A lost copy of this order was recovered on September 13 by Union Army troops in
Frederick County, Maryland Frederick County is located in Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the population was 271,717. The county seat is Frederick, Maryland, Frederick. The county is part of the Washington metropolitan area, ...
, and read by General
George B. McClellan George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey and as Commanding General of the United States Army from November 1861 to March 186 ...
, who changed the direction of his movement to conform to Lee's movements as the document described.


History


Drafting

The order was drafted on or about September 9, 1862, during the Maryland Campaign. It gave details of the movements of the
Army of Northern Virginia The Army of Northern Virginia was a field army of the Confederate States Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was also the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed agains ...
during the early days of its invasion of
Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
. Lee divided his army, which he planned to regroup later; according to the precise text Major General
Stonewall Jackson Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general and military officer who served during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the eastern the ...
was to move his command to Martinsburg while McLaws's command and Walker's command "endeavored to capture
Harpers Ferry Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 269 at the 2020 United States census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac River, Potomac and Shenandoah River, Shenandoah Rivers in the ...
." Major General
James Longstreet James Longstreet (January 8, 1821January 2, 1904) was a General officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War and was the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Ho ...
was to move his command northward to Boonsborough. Major General D. H. Hill's division was to act as rear guard on the march from Frederick. Lee delineated the routes and roads to be taken and the timing for the investment of Harpers Ferry. On September 12th, from Hagerstown, Lee sent the original order of the 9th to President Davis. AAG Robert Chilton signed this document Lee's staff officers, with the exception of Charles Venable, denied being involved in the promulgation of the Order. After the war D.H. Hill produced a copy of the Order written in the hand of his brother-in-law, Stonewall Jackson. No other division commander produced a copy of the Order. Longstreet claimed, in 1895, that he ate his copy.


Union discovery of lost copy

About noon on September 13,
Corporal Corporal is a military rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The rank is usually the lowest ranking non-commissioned officer. In some militaries, the rank of corporal nominally corr ...
Barton W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana Volunteers, part of the Union XII Corps, discovered cigars wrapped in a piece of paper lying in the grass at a campground. Mitchell realized the significance of the document and turned it in to
Sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...
John M. Bloss. They went to their regimental commander Colonel Silas Colgrove, who carried it to the corps headquarters. There, an aide named Samuel Pitman claimed he recognized the signature on the document as that of Robert Chilton, Confederate AAG. The 12th Corps commander, Alpheus S. Williams, sent the document to McClellan who read it. McClellan was overcome with glee at learning planned Confederate troop movements and reportedly exclaimed, "Now I know what to do!" He confided to Brigadier General John Gibbon, "Here is a paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home."


Effect

In a letter written to D.H. Hill, in 1868, Lee stated that he learned McClellan had read the Order from Stuart the night of September 13th, Stuart reporting that a "Citizen of Maryland" had arrived at Boonsboro with the news. Two Northern newspapers reported no later than September 15 that Union officers had Lee's orders. Indeed, on the morning of September 15, 1862, the ''New York Herald'', the North’s biggest newspaper, printed the following bulletin on the right-hand column on its front page:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14, 1862 Officers who left Frederick this morning report that a general order of General Lee was found there, directing that two columns of the rebel army should proceed by way of Middletown, one of them destined for Greencastle, Pa., with all possible expedition, and the other to proceed by way of Williamsport or Shepherdstown, at discretion, to engage the Union forces at Harper's Ferrry. ic/blockquote>The reasons this was both printed and overlooked are explored here. McClellan stopped Lee's invasion at the subsequent
Battle of Antietam The Battle of Antietam ( ), also called the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the Southern United States, took place during the American Civil War on September 17, 1862, between Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virgi ...
, but many military historians believe he failed to fully exploit the strategic advantage of the intelligence because he was concerned about a possible trap (Major General Henry W. Halleck had been concerned that "Lee might draw McClellan and the army away from Washington, then turn and attack the city") or gross overestimation of the strength of Lee's army.


Legacy

Where the lost order was discovered is not exactly known, but its general location is where today a quarry exists on the outskirts of
Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in, and the county seat of, Frederick County, Maryland, United States. Frederick's population was 78,171 people as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Maryland, second-largest ...
, A historical marker on the
Monocacy National Battlefield Monocacy National Battlefield is a unit of the National Park Service, the site of the Battle of Monocacy in the American Civil War fought on July 9, 1864. The battlefield straddles the Monocacy River southeast of the city of Frederick, Maryland. ...
commemorates the finding of Special Order 191 during the Maryland Campaign. Corporal Mitchell, who found the orders, was subsequently wounded in the leg at Antietam and was discharged in 1864 due to the resulting chronic infection. He died in 1868 at the age of 52.


Purported Original Copies of Special Orders, No. 191 from 1862

There are four documents that contain the text of Lee's Order of the 9th: The original document signed by Chilton and sent to President Davis on September 12, 1862; The text as copied by A.P. Mason into Chilton's letter book; the text as written by Stonewall Jackson and delivered at some place and time to D.H. Hill; the copy of the Order held by the Library of Congrees, as part of the McClellan Papers written in an unknown hand.#Full order in the Army of Northern Virginia Special Order Book at the National Archives. (also with pages extracted to a separate file at the National Archives) #Union Gen. George B. McClellan's copy of a portion of the order (i.e., the "lost" version) from McClellan's personal documents deposited with the Library of Congress. #Confederate Gen. D. H. Hill's copy of a portion of the order (purportedly written by Stonewall Jackson) at the Library of the University of North Carolina.


Special Orders, No. 191


References


"Civil War Papers of Samuel E. Pittman, Lt. Col., 1861–1925."
Am Mss Pittman. Chapin Library, Williams College. * Harsh, Joseph L. ''Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee & Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862.'' 1999, . * Jones, Wilbur D.

* Leigh, Philip "Lee's Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies." (Yardley, Penna.: Westholme Publishing, 2015), * Sears, Stephen W., ''Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam'', 1983 (1985 Popular Library edition), . * Seeds/McMoneagle, "Civil War Lost Order Mystery Solved", 2012 (Logistics News Network, LLC. on The Evidential Details Mystery Series Imprint)


Notes


External links

* {{Maryland in the Civil War American Civil War documents Frederick County, Maryland General orders Maryland in the American Civil War 1862 documents