Special Order 191

 

Special Order 191

SPECIAL ORDER 191.  Quotes about Special Order 191.  Confederate quotes are listed first.  As of December 21, 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The staff took Lee’s instructions, wrote them down, entered one copy in the ‘confidential book’ or held it to be copied later into the general order book, and sent another copy by orderly to the commander addressed.  Sometimes the orderly was told to bring back a receipt.”

Charles Marshall Nov 11 1867

Marshall, Lee’s military secretary describes how Lee’s orders are assembled. Regarding D.H.. Hill’s inquiry on SO 191

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

“The harsh epithets which he applies to me are unworthy of the dignity of the historian, and prove a prejudiced state of mind.  Second, If I petulantly threw down the order [as he claimed], I deserve not merely to be cashiered, but to be shot to death with musketry.  General Lee, who ought to have known the facts…never brought me to trial for it.” D.H. Hill repudiating the wartime editor of the Richmond Examiner on the loss of SO 191

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

“I went into Maryland under Jackson’s command.  I was under his command when Lee’s order was issued.  It was proper that I should receive that order through Jackson and not through Lee.”

D.H. Hill describing the issuance of SO 191

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

“exposed the unfairness of attributing to me the loss of a paper, solely on the ground that it was directed to me.”

D.H. Hill on SO 191

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

“Oh, we have that order,”

Henry Kyd Douglas. The Lost Dispatch – A War Mystery about the alleged “smoker” on Jackson’s staff who stated that he already had the order and was careless with it. From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

“no order came to the division from General Lee.”

James Wylie  Ratchford, Hill’s staff officer affirms that SO 191 did not come from Lee

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

[Lee said]” he did not know that General Hill had himself lost the dispatch and in consequence he had no grounds upon which to act, but that General Stuart and other officers in the army were very indignant about the matter.” Robert E. Lee discussing Hill’s complicity in the loss of SO 191

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

“at the time the order fell into Genl McClellan’s hands, I considered it a great calamity and subsequent reflection has not caused me to change my opinion”

Robert E. Lee Feb 21 1868 In a letter to DH Hill after the war describing the loss of SO 191 and responding to Hill’s magazine article. From The Secret War for the Union by Edwin C. Fishel. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.

 

“Had the Lost Dispatch not been lost and had McClellan continued his cautious policy for two or three days longer, I (Lee) would have had all my troops reconcentrated on Md. Side, stragglers up, men rested & I intended then to attack McClellan, hoping the best results from state of my troops & those of the enemy. Tho’ it is impossible to say  that victory would have certainly resulted, it is probable that the loss of the dispatch changed the character of the campaign.” Robert E. Lee Feb 15 1868

Lee in an interview with William Allan after the war describing the Maryland Campaign

From “Memoranda of Conversations with General Robert E. Lee.” by William Allan in Lee the Soldier. Edited by Gary Gallagher. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

 

“He had the orders sent from his own Head Quarters to Hill, as the latter was now under his immediate command, & it was perfectly proper for Gen. Jackson to do so to inform Hill that he was no longer under his (Jackson’s) order.” Robert E. Lee Feb 15 1868

Lee in an interview with William Allan after the war describing the Maryland Campaign

From “Memoranda of Conversations with General Robert E. Lee.” by William Allan in Lee the Soldier. Edited by Gary Gallagher. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

 

“The Yankees still holding Harpers Ferry & in the rear. He formed a plan to overwhelm them by sending three columns, Walker, McLaws, and Jackson to center at Harpers Ferry and if possible catch them.”

Robert E. Lee Feb 15 1868

Lee in an interview with William Allan after the war describing the Maryland Campaign

From “Memoranda of Conversations with General Robert E. Lee.” by William Allan in Lee the Soldier. Edited by Gary Gallagher. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.

 

“This order was so important that violation of this rule would have been noticed, & I think I should certainly recollect if delivery had been omitted….” Robert H. Chilton Jun 22 1867 Chilton discussing SO 191

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

“That omission to deliver in his [the couriers] case so important an order would 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.”

Robert H. Chilton discussing SO 191 in a letter to Jefferson Davis

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

“I should have supposed so important an order as constituting an important part of the history of the war would have been preserved amongst you papers if ever received.”

Robert H. Chilton discussing SO 191

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

“At the council held at Frederick, I opposed the separation of our forces in order to capture Harper’s Ferry.  I urged that we all should be kept together.” Thomas Jackson Dec 1862

Jackson to DH Hill in a private conversation after Fredericksburg

From Lee’s Maverick General Daniel Harvey Hill by Hal Bridges.  Lincoln:  University of Nebraska Press, 1961.

 

“This contention will never be settled until the line is established that marks where Divine Sovereignty ends and human free-agency begins.” Walter Taylor writing about whether the order was lost through the intervention of Providence against the Confederate cause.

From “Who Lost the Lost Orders?”by Wilbur D. Jones.  The Maryland Campaign of 1862 Civil War Regiments:  A Journal of the American Civil War. Vol 5, No 3. Campbell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.

 

Federal Quotes

 

“It is a document of interest and is also thought genuine

Alpheus Williams in a note to McClellan after his soldiers discovered the Lost Order

From Counter-Thrust From the Peninsula to the Antietam by Benjamin Franklin Cooling. Lincoln: University of Nebraska 2007.

 

“I am off the opinion that the order of Lee that you inquire about was found in the camp which had been occupied by A.P. Hill and D. H. Hill.  This has always been my impression from information obtained on the spot and it is hardly possible that I could be mistaken.”

R. B. Marcy May 5 1868

Marcy, McClellan’s former Chief of Staff in a letter to S. W. Crawford addressing the discovery and location of Lee’s lost order

From Lee’s Maverick General Daniel Harvey Hill by Hal Bridges.  Lincoln:  University of Nebraska Press, 1961.

 

“A member of Colonel Colgrove’s [sic] regiment found a paper purporting to be Rebel Order No. 119 [191], which conveyed the information that one portion of the army was to go to Hagerstown and hold that place; and another proceed to Harper’s Ferry and dislodge Miles; and the third proceed against General White; and the force afterwards to concentrate at Hagerstown.”

Washington Star Sep 15 1862

A newspaper account of the finding of SO 191 printed two days after its discovery

From “The Lost Order and the Press.” by Scott Sherlock. The Maryland Campaign of 1862 and its Aftermath, Civil War Regiments Vol 6 No. 2. Campell CA:  Savas Publishing Company, 1998.