Existing comment:
Who Lost the Orders?
Written orders were delivered in envelopes that required a signature to be returned to headquarters as a receipt. However, when the envelope containing the copy of Special Orders 191 sent by Chilton directly to D.H. Hill was not returned, no alarm was raised at Lee's headquarters.
D.H. Hill became the obvious scapegoat since his name was on the orders and he spent many years after the war defending himself against accusations that he lost them. Hill understood the sensitive nature of the orders and was able to produce his copy which he had pinned securely into his jacket. His Adjutant, Major James W. Richford, provided sword testimony that it was his duty to take custody of orders, and that no orders had been delivered to him except the one from Jackson.
In 1874, Chilton responded to former Confederate President Jefferson Davis' questions about the loss of the orders saying,
"That omission to deliver in his (the courier's) case so important an order w'd have been recollected as entailing the duty to advise its loss, to guard against its consequences, and to act as required... But I could not of course say positively that I had sent any particular courier to him (Hill) after such a lapse of time."
He admitted that someone should have noticed that the orders were missing.
Interestingly, both D.H. Hill and Walker understood the importance of the orders and pinned it in an inside pocket of their jackets. Longstreet said he thought about doing the same but decided instead to memorize the orders then "chewed it up." |