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To: AntiJen; snippy_about_it; Victoria Delsoul; bentfeather; radu; SpookBrat; bluesagewoman; HiJinx; ...
Robert Hall Chilton was a rather faceless actor amidst the luminaries that surrounded him. Yet it was he who signed Robert E. Lee's Special Orders 191 that became known as the "Lost Dispatch".

A Virginian and West Point graduate, Chilton served as Robert E. Lee's Adjutant General during the Maryland campaign. To the uninitiated, an adjutant general is the secretary to the commander he serves. Among his many tasks are receiving the orders of the commander, seeing that they are written out correctly (duplicated, if necessary), conveyed to their destination and receipted.


Robert Hall Chilton


By necessity, the word and signature of the Adjutant General was also understood to be the word and signature of the commander. His voice became the de facto the voice of the commander. Beneath him served a staff of secretaries and messengers. Together they formed the "Internet" of their commander. Obviously, his role was crucial and his loyalty essential to the success of the army.

The lack of examination by Civil War historians of Chilton as possible suspect in this mystery became, well, a mystery to me. Out of curiosity, I undertook an examination of Chilton's record and background. The results were startling.

Upon examining every reference to him in Freeman's Lee's Lieutenants, I a record of incredible, to say the least, incompetence. In every extended reference to Chilton, a result counter productive to the Confederate cause occurred. In no case was there a positive result. Most prominent was, of course, his signature on Lee's Special Orders 191.

Just as crucial in the finding of the Lost Order was the necessity of identifying it as a bone fide order.

The remarkable coincidence that the "Lost Dispatch" happened to end up in the hands of people, Williams and Pittman, who could positively verify Chilton's signature thickened my suspicions. [Chilton served in the regular Army as a paymaster including a few years stint in Detroit in the 1850's, home to Gen. Alpheus Williams and his adjutant Lt. Samuel Pittman, who verified the signature.] How interesting it was that Pittman could recognize Chilton's signature after such a time, but Chilton, only a few years after the war, could not remember if the "Lost Order" was receipted.
2 posted on 09/14/2003 12:01:17 AM PDT by SAMWolf (The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: All
'I have all the plans of the rebels...'

-- General George McClellan
in a telegram to Lincoln, September 13, 1862

'That omission to deliver in his [the courier's] case so important an order [would] have been recollected as entailing the duty to advise its loss, to guard against consequences, and to act as required... But I could not of course say positively that I had sent any particular courier to him [D.H. Hill] after such a lapse of time.'

-- Robert Hall Chilton
December 8, 1874
(Lee's Adjutant General who signed the lost copy of Special Orders 191)


3 posted on 09/14/2003 12:01:40 AM PDT by SAMWolf (The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it; AntiJen; MistyCA; SpookBrat; PhilDragoo; All
Afternoon everyone! Good to see you all.

Blessed are they who give
without expecting even thanks in return,
for they shall be abundantly rewarded.

Blessed are they who translate
every good thing they know into action,
for ever higher truths shall be revealed unto them.

Blessed are they who do God's will
without asking to see results,
for great shall be their recompense.

Blessed are they who love and trust their fellow beings,
for they shall reach the good in people and
receive a loving response.

Blessed are they who have seen reality, for they know
that not the garment of clay but that which activates
the garment of clay is real and indestructible.

Blessed are they who see the change we call death
as a liberation from the limitation of this earth-life,
for they shall rejoice with their loved ones
who make the glorious transition.

Blessed are they who after dedicating their lives
and thereby receiving a blessing, have the courage and faith
to surmount the difficulties of the path ahead,
for they shall receive a second blessing.

Blessed are they who advance toward the spiritual path
without the selfish motive of seeking inner peace,
for they shall find it.

Blessed are they who instead of trying to
batter down the gates of the kingdom of heaven
approach them humbly and lovingly and purified,
for they shall pass right through.

- Mildred Norman

35 posted on 09/14/2003 2:25:10 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul (There aren't enough conservatives in CA to vote for Tom and still have him to win. That's a fact)
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