Posted on 09/13/2010 5:01:47 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
Sep 13, 1862:
The Union Discovers "Lost Order"
Union soldiers find a copy of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's orders detailing the Confederates' plan for the Antietam campaign near Frederick, Maryland. But Union General George B. McClellan was slow to act, and the advantage the intelligence provided was lost.
On the morning of September 13, the 27th Indiana rested in a meadow outside of Frederick, Maryland, which had served as the site of a Confederate camp a few days before. Sergeant John Bloss and Corporal Barton W. Mitchell found a piece of paper wrapped around three cigars. The paper was addressed to Confederate General D.H. Hill. Its title read, "Special Order No. 191, Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia." Realizing that they had discovered a copy of the Confederate operation plan, Barton and Mitchell quickly passed it up the chain of command. By chance, the division adjutant general, Samuel Pittman, recognized the handwriting on the orders as that of a colleague from the prewar army, Robert Chilton, who was the adjutant general to Robert E. Lee.
Pittman took the order to McClellan. The Union commander had spent the previous week mystified by Lee's operations, but now the Confederate plan was clear. He reportedly gloated, "Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home." McClellan now knew that Lee's forces were split into five parts and scattered over a 30-mile stretch, with the Potomac River in between. At least eight miles separated each piece of Lee's army, and McClellan was just a dozen miles from the nearest Confederate unit at South Mountain.
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
Similarity of Mclelland and our current commander in chief. Both cowardly blow hards....
This Day in the War of Northern Aggression History September 13th, 1862 The Union Discovers “Lost Order”
Fixed the title.
McClellan was the prototype for later generations of soft war Democrats, but to give him his due, he did stabilize the situation after 2nd Bull Run and he did well enough at Antietam to enable Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, so he does earn some gratitude from Americans.
I see much similar between Mac and the lefty’s. Just as I see much similar between Bush 43 and Grant/Sherman. The only way to win is make them worry about what you are going to do, not worry at all about what they are going to do. No rest, no mercy, no quarter, anywhere, anytime. Just ask Al Qaeda who’d they rather fight against.
Very little in my mind.
What I wondered most about is this...
Given that McClellan believed that Lee’s army was larger than his and also (IIRC) that McClellan believed the Lost Order was a forgery, why didn’t he at least take the time to have his cavalry check into whether the info in the Lost Order was accurate?
He didn’t.
And that in itself strikes me as negligence and incompetence. McClellan could have literally ran the Army of Northern Virginia into the Potomac if he had acted correctly.
The Civil War would still have dragged on but not for as long as it did.
Yeah, The brass ordered them destroyed by fire
On second thought, the more I think of Little Mac’s attitude to the destruction of Pope, the more I think you might be correct and that I might have been too generous to our would-be Napoleon.
is that a confession? ;^)
If you think that’s negligence and incompetence, let’s reconvene on 9/18 and recall McClellan’s allowing Lee’s retreat from Antietam...
Fixed your fix.
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