Existing comment:
Special Orders 191 Discovered by Union Soldiers:
On September 13, 1862, as the Union army moved into the Frederick area, McClellan remained uncertain of Lee's intentions and whereabouts. Soldiers on a skirmish line from Company F, 27th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, XII Corps, found Special Orders 191 as they were resting from their early morning march. Finding the copy of Special Orders 191 was an intelligence coup because it described the locations of Lee's army.
"Moved forward out to discover no enemy and halted near the city limits in a meadow; it was a warm morning and when we halted we threw ourselves on the ground to rest."
-- Private William H. Hostetter, Company A, 27th Indiana
McClellan received the copy of the orders by noon. At 3:00 pm, he sent the orders to his cavalry chief, General Alfred Pleasanton instructing him to verify to what extent they had been followed. Armed with information on the Confederate army's location and Lee's intentions, McClellan planned to isolate the fragmented Confederate army and destroy it.
Lee was surprised that the Union army moved more quickly than usual. Upon learning about the lost orders after the campaign, Lee understand the change saying, "to discover my whereabouts... caused him to act as to force a battle on me before I was ready for it. I would have had all my troops reconcentrated... stragglers up, men rested and intended then to attack." The delay at Harpers Ferry, which fell three days behind schedule, was critical to the relevance of the information in Special Orders 191. If Jackson had been on schedule, the finding of the orders would have been "old news" and of limited value to McClellan. The fact that the operation was still active made the information invaluable and forced Lee into battles at South Mountain and Antietam.
Rangers have used Ezra Carman's annotated maps of the 1862 MD campaign, Edmond Brown's The Twenty-Sixth Indiana Volunteers regimental history, along with soldiers' interviews and letters to reconstruct the route of the 27th Indiana Volunteers as they entered into Frederick and found the lost orders.
"I have the whole rebel force in front of me, but am confident, and no time shall be lost... I think Lee has made a gross mistake and that he will be severely punished for it... I hope for a great success if the plans of the Rebels remain unchanged... I have all the plans of the Rebels and will catch them in their own trap if my men are equal to the emergency..."
-- Message from McClellan to Lincoln
After the War:
In post war years, soldiers' memories faded and the identities of the persons credited with finding the orders changed several times. However, Sergeant John M. Bloss, commander of the skirmish line, wrote a letter thirteen days later, containing a few details about finding the orders. In this unpublished letter, Bloss said Corporal Barton Mitchell found the orders in a wheat field, under a locust tree, with two cigars. |