[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from April 18 (Reply #64)

Although he had no idea that such fortune awaited him when he next rode away, Lee was never to see Camp Cooper again. Arriving at Fort Mason in time for the assembly of a court on July 15, he had been there only eight days when an express arrived with orders to proceed at once to San Antonio and to take command of the regiment, as Colonel Johnston had been called to Washington by the War Department. Lee reached San Antonio on the 28th and assumed command the next day. Life was now much more pleasant. San Antonio was immeasurably a more acceptable post than poor Camp Cooper. Instead of a tent there were quarters, a whole house, indeed, which Lee occupied on August 1. He found friends there, too among them the family of Major R.H. Chilton, paymaster, who was to serve later as his chief of staff.

Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee, an abridgement by Richard Harwell

[rdl6989]

The R.H. Chilton mentioned here would play a role in the story of the lost order of Antietam, also known as special order 191. He actually wrote the order. After the order was lost and later found by men from the 27th Indiana Infantry Regiment it was forwarded to McClellan’s headquarters where an officer who knew Chilton verified the order was genuine.