The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Lost Orders of Antietam (9/13/1862)- Sep. 14th, 2003

http://bhere.com/plugugly/lost/story.html ^

[SAMWolf]

Evening Old Sarge.

Out of curiosity why is the Guard monitoring the weather, or are you just getting updates and heads-ups from the NWS?

You keep an eye on those men and women overseas for us.

You'll have to fight mny son for that Dew. He drinks in by the 12 pack.

[Old Sarge]

Out of curiosity why is the Guard monitoring the weather, or are you just getting updates and heads-ups from the NWS?

Weather is a humongous factor with us! We get called out for missions called MSCA - Military Support of Civilian Authority. That's the tornado/flood/snowstorm missions. We've got Air Guard missions flying all over the place - life flights and Medevac's, counter-terror, etc.

A storm this size could ruin our day in fun and exciting ways. Massive rainfall causes flooding downriver. Wind blowdown causes physical damage. Evacuation orders might go out. Looting - like Andrew and Opal - might start.

And the Guard guys respond with whatever we can roll out the armory yards. That's why we have to maintain our homeland readiness, as well as support of the War. The fun just doesn't stop.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the Info.

My unit was called up for the flood of '93 in Illinois. Didn't know they had the NG actually monitoring the storms.

Like you guys don't have enough to do already.

[Old Sarge]

With enough warning, we can plan for things. Isabel graciously gave us a week or more to prep. The Guards on the coast are probably on standby right now. My boss and I will be on 2-hour recall, if need be.

[SAMWolf]

I hope they at least have a cot nearby and don't make you throw a slepeing bag on the drill floor to sleep. Concrete and my back just didn't mix well.

[Old Sarge]

Nah, we're here in the State Ops Center. The Palace. The Head Shed. Plush, carpets, 56-inch cable TV, lowest ranking guy here is an O-3. And then there's lil' ol' me...

That and some Dews, and I'm ready...

[SAMWolf]

I noticed a big difference in "comforts" from when I was in a Line Company and a HQ Company.

Liked the comforts in the HHC but way too mucj Brass running around. :-)

[snippy_about_it]

Good night SAM.

[SAMWolf]

FREQUENTLY ASSERTED CLAIMS ABOUT GEO. B. McCLELLAN

TOPIC: THE LOST ORDERS

CLAIM: McClellan failed to promptly issue march/combat orders capitalizing on the discovery of Lee's Special Order 191 during the Antietam campaign.

CITATIONS:
"Every writer agrees that Little Mac erred egregiously when he failed to order an immediate march toward the west on the afternoon of September 13. [...] Instead, McClellan squandered the afternoon and evening of the 13th, sending orders after dark for a two-pronged advance the next morning..."
A. Wilson Greene, "I Fought the Battle Splendidly," Antietam: Essays on the 1862 Maryland Campaign, Gary Gallagher, ed.

"A full 18 hours would pass before the first Yankee soldiers marched in response to the discovery of 'all the plans of the rebels.' "
Stephen Sears, A Landscape Turned Red

"Instead of setting his troops in motion immediately, McClellan made careful plans and did not order the men forward until daybreak on September 14, 18 hours after he had learned Lee's dispositions. As things turned out, this delay enabled Lee to concentrate and save his army."
James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom

RESPONSE:

Special Order 191 was discovered between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. on September 13. In roughly the next hour it travelled through five levels of command to reach McClellan. Before noon he had analyzed it sufficiently to conclude it was genuine and useful and he cabled Lincoln about it at 12:00 o'clock. From that point on, any orders McClellan issued to his troops would have been informed by McClellan's knowledge of Lee's orders.

(1) The first documented "order" McClellan issued after verifying Special Order 191, was contained in his noontime cable to Lincoln: "All forces of Pennsylvania should be placed to cooperate at Chambersburg."

(2) Silas Colgrove was the colonel of the 27th Indiana Volunteers when men in Co. F found S.O. 191. "Within an hour after finding the dispatch, General McClellan's whole army was on the move," he wrote.

(3) "About noon of the 13th, I was ordered to march with my division to Middletown," said MG Jacob Cox, (3) referring to the town between the Catoctin and South mountains on the way to Boonsboro (the designated meeting point of enemy columns in SO 191). Cox said that Rodman's division had been ordered there too but had gone the wrong way. "McClellan himself met me as my column moved out of town [Frederick], and told me of the misunderstanding in Rodman's orders, adding, that if I met him on the march I should take his division along with me." McClellan thus not only issued fresh orders to Cox at noon, but amended earlier orders.

(4) Fresh instructions to the cavalry and to IX Corps were issued at 2:00 p.m. This was just two hours after McClellan validated S.O. 191.

(5) McClellan gave new directives to the previously moved VIth Corps "before 3:00 p.m." on the 13th, three hours after validating S.O. 191.

(6) A third IXth Corps move was started at 6:00 p.m. and finished after midnight.

The orders and movements above are especially listed because they address the central axis of McClellan's march (to Middleton and to Boonsboro -- the concentration points specified in Lee's order). For details of more McClellan-directed movements on the 13th, see John Michael Priest's Before Antietam and John W. Schildt's Roads to Antietam.

SUMMARY:
After finding Lee's order, McClellan promptly issued orders directing his forces westward, toward Lee's ordered concentration points. It is wrong to claim that he waited until nightfall to issue such orders or that no such movements occurred until the next morning.

Dimitri Rotov

[SAMWolf]

Good Night Snippy.

Great song!!

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks for the added information.

It does appear that once the Lost Orders were found McClellan acted on them immediately.

[stand watie]

good.

the fictional account/alternate history is interesting/entertaining.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

i didn't like GOTS. totally unrealistic, with the time machine & all that.

free dixie,sw

[SAMWolf]

I liked it as a Science Fiction novel.

Time Travel is facsinating to me.

[stand watie]

FINE. it's just NOT "my cup of tea".

free dixie,sw

[colorado tanker]

Interesting post, Sam. I just have a problem with McClellan threads - that guy really rubs me the wrong way. He may have started to Antietam in a timely fashion - I hadn't seen the new info claiming that - but he surely lost the opportunity to win a decisive victory with his typical lack of skill as a battlefield commander.

Also an interesting theory about Chilton. Any historians speculate about that or is this all your theory, Sam?

[SAMWolf]

Also an interesting theory about Chilton. Any historians speculate about that or is this all your theory, Sam?

It's not my theory, I got that article from a site done by someone named Lowell Boileau. It seemed interesting but I don't know how much backing there is for his theory.

I just have a problem with McClellan threads - that guy really rubs me the wrong way.

You and me both, for some reason the troops liked him though, go figure.