Existing comment:
John McKnight Bloss enlisted in the 27th Indiana Volunteer Infantry on August 9, 1861, at the age of 22. During the 1862 Maryland Campaign, Bloss was Sergeant of the skirmishers from the 27th Indiana leading the march of the of XII Corps into Frederick, MD. Bloss was with Barton Mitchell when the later [sic] discovered Special Orders 191. Upon reading the orders, Bloss had the document sent up the chain of command. On September 25th, twelve days after the orders were found, Bloss wrote a letter from a field hospital after the Battle of Antietam. In this letter, Bloss provides several interesting observations about the orders. This unpublished letter is the closest primary source to the finding of the orders, and provided several interesting observations that resolves several "mysteries" that surround the lost orders.
In this letter, Bloss clearly identifies Barton Mitchell as the finder of Lee's "plan of attack." Bloss says he was with Mitchell and was the first to read the orders and understood its importance. Bloss continued by saying, "he [McClellan] pushed the same day and I think his expedition [of] his movements kept [the] enemy from uniting at the point they had intended."
Bloss also observed that the dispatch was found "in a wheat field, under a Locas Tree [locust tree], with two cigars." While not significant to the importance of the orders, it is significant to the circumstances surrounding the actual finding of the letter, which has intrigued both amateur and professional historians.
Bloss resigned from the army on October 17, 1864 as a result of a serious wound he received at the Battle of Resaca in Georgia. He spent the rest Of [sic] his life as an educator, ultimately serving as President of the State Agricultural College of Oregon (now Oregon State University). Bloss returned to Indiana in 1896, and died on April 26, 1906 on his farm in Hamilton County. |