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LEE'S ORDER IN MCCLELLAN'S HANDS

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CH. XVIII.] ceed slowly. September 10 he ordered a general advance, and began to ask for reinforcements; the next day he repeated this request, specified what troops in particular he wanted, and argued that it would be well even to weaken the defences about Washington for the purpose of strengthening his army: he estimated the Confederate force at 120,000.1 The President ordered Porter's corps to join him.2 September 12 a portion of the Union right wing entered Frederick City amidst the joyful acclaim of its inhabitants. McClellan arrived a day later, and wrote of his "enthusiastic reception": "I was nearly overwhelmed and pulled to pieces. . . . As to flowers, they came in crowds!" Fortune turned his way. There was brought to him an order of Lee, disclosing the division of the Confederate army and the exact scheme of their march the whole plan of the able strategist opposed to him was revealed. The order, addressed to D. H. Hill and wrapped around three cigars, was found by Private Mitchell of the 27th Indiana on the ground which had been occupied by Hill's troops. When General John G. Walker received his copy of this order, it occurred to him that disaster might result from its loss, and he "pinned it securely in an inside pocket." Longstreet, with the same thought, took a more certain precaution; "he memorized the order and then chewed it up." The finder and his superior officers made no doubt of its importance: it was taken at once to the headquarters of the army, where the signature to it of Lee's adjutant was verified. McClellan's joy is shown in his despatch to the President written at noon of September 13: "I have the whole rebel force in front of me, but am confident, and no time shall be lost. . . . I think Lee has made a gross mistake,

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1 O. R., vol. xix. part ii. pp. 234, 253, 254.

Porter had been relieved from duty by direction of the President, but this order was suspended at the request of McClellan. — Ibid., pp. 188, 189. The general court-martial which tried Porter did not convene until Nov. 27. - Ibid., vol. xii. part ii. p. 507.

3 Own Story, p. 571.

4 Printed, O. R., vol. xix. part ii. p. 603.

5 Century War Book, vol. ii. pp. 603, 607.

and that he will be severely punished for it. The army is in motion as rapidly as possible. I hope for a great success if the plans of the rebels remain unchanged. . . . I have all the plans of the rebels, and will catch them in their own trap if my men are equal to the emergency. I now feel that I can count on them as of old. . . . My respects to Mrs. Lincoln. Received most enthusiastically by the ladies." McClellan acted with energy, but not with the energy of the great Frederick or of Napoleon.2 He marched his army forward, and the next day (September 14) won the battle of South Mountain. Jacob Dolson Cox, who seized an unexpected opportunity, made a brave assault in the morning, with his Kanawha division and carried the crest of Fox's Gap. In the afternoon Reno's corps, to which Cox belonged, and Hooker's corps forced Turner's Gap, securing a passage for the Union army over the South Mountain range to the field of Antietam. This victory restored the morale of the Union army, and gave heart to the President and the people of the North.

Meanwhile Franklin, on his way to relieve the garrison at Harper's Ferry, had forced Crampton's Gap. But it had been put beyond the power of generals of no more enterprise than McClellan and Franklin to save this post. The military blunder of Halleck in refusing to abandon Harper's Ferry would have been an astonishing piece of good fortune had he thrown off for the occasion his habitual vacillation. As early as September 5 he suggested to Wool, who was stationed at Baltimore and had command of a department which embraced Harper's Ferry, "the propriety of withdrawing all our forces in that vicinity to Maryland Heights,"4 on the Maryland side of the Potomac River; but Wool did

1 O. R., vol. xix. part ii. p. 281. In his despatch to Halleck, 11 P. M., Sept. 13, McClellan wrote that Lee's order came into his hands that evening, but it is unquestionable that he must have had it when he sent the telegram to the President cited in the text.

2 See Ropes's Civil War, part ii. p. 341 et seq.

3 Ibid., p. 346.

4 O. R., vol. xix. part ii. p. 189.

CH. XVIII.]

SURRENDER OF HARPER'S FERRY

147

not see fit to put this suggestion in shape of an order. Why Halleck himself did not issue such a command is not entirely clear. McClellan advised it as the next best thing to having the garrison reinforce his own army, and had it been done it is difficult to imagine how Lee with all his fertility of resource could have saved himself, for Franklin and the Harper's Ferry garrison would have fought Jackson while McClellan overwhelmed the other wing of the Confederate army. Perhaps the military jealousy of which Halleck had spoken in warning to Pope1 had risen in his own breast, and as McClellan's star was now in the ascendant and his was declining, he would not order it because the suggestion came from his rival. Nothing could have been more unwise than this division of authority. The whole campaign should have been from the first in McClellan's hands. Yet, as haggling between Halleck and McClellan seemed to be the necessary concomitant of their endeavors to co-operate, Halleck ought to have had the courage of his conviction. Wool was a man seventy-eight years old, who had been given a place on account of meritorious service in Mexico, but who seems to have been no better than a clog in these operations; and for the generalin-chief to have suggested to him a strategic move was a piece of misplaced responsibility hardly to be expected in military affairs. D. S. Miles, the commander at Harper's Ferry, placed the strange construction on his orders that they did not permit him to mass his whole force on Maryland Heights, but required him in his exigency to coop it up in the village. Jackson and other detachments of the Confederates encompassed Harper's Ferry by occupying all the hills around it, and the garrison fell without a struggle, the surrender including 12,500 men and much material of war.3

The despatches of Halleck, even after he became aware of

1 See last note to chap. xvii.

2 The Harper's Ferry garrison was not placed under McClellan's com mand until Sept. 12.

* See O. R., vol. xix. parts i. and ii.; Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 612 et seq.; McClellan's Own Story, p. 549.

the finding of Lee's lost order, conveyed to McClellan poor and superfluous counsel. His fears for the safety of Washington, his anxious suggestions of caution showed blindness to McClellan's great fault, and no proper comprehension of the strategy needed in this campaign. Compare this division of authority among Halleck, McClellan, and Wool, accompanied undoubtedly by pressure from the President and the Secretary of War, with the management on the other side, where a single head directed all movements. Lee was supreme. Longstreet objected to the division of the army when he was asked to command the detachment for the capture of Harper's Ferry. Lee simply ordered Jackson to make the move at first intended for Longstreet, but the arrangement was made in such manner that Longstreet did not feel aggrieved." It may have been that aversion to having his movements hampered by his superior was a reason why Lee objected to Jefferson Davis joining his army.

A citizen friendly to the Confederate cause had been present when Lee's lost order was brought to McClellan; he got an inkling of its importance to the Union army, made his way through the lines, and gave the information to Stuart, who at once transmitted it to Lee. Having this knowledge before daylight of September 14, Lee, who was disappointed and concerned at the rapid advance of McClellan, left Hagerstown, retraced his steps, disputed without success, as we have seen, the passes of South Mountain, and took up a strong position behind Antietam Creek, around the village of Sharpsburg. In the lost order Jackson and the commanders of the different detachments acting with him for the capture of Harper's Ferry were asked to join the main body of the army after accomplishing their object. Lee awaited them with his

1 O. R., vol. xix. part i. p. 41, part ii. p. 289; C. W., part i. p. 451.

2 Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 663; From Manassas to Appomattox,

p. 201.

3 Allan, Army of Northern Virginia, p. 345.

4 It was not Lee's main army that Franklin fought at Crampton's Gap, but some of the troops who had been sent to capture Harper's Ferry.

CH. XVIII.]

LEE'S CAMPAIGN A FAILURE

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small force. His Maryland campaign so far was a failure. Circumstances had beaten him, and only a decisive victory could bring back that prestige which was his when he marched out of Frederick. It was no longer Philadelphia and Harrisburg that were in danger; it was the very army which had menaced them. McClellan, say military judges, should have pressed forward vigorously, fought Lee the afternoon of September 15 before Jackson came up, since with his superior force he ought to have crushed the Confederate army. Whether indeed he could have been ready may be questioned, but it seems clear that he ought to have attacked early in the morning of the 16th, when Jackson was still three miles away on the other side of the Potomac, when John G. Walker's division was even farther off, and when McLaws, R. H. Anderson, and A. P. Hill, who had also assisted in the capture of Harper's Ferry, were in a position not to come up until the next day. Walker arrived during the morning of the 16th,2 and reporting to Lee found him "calm, dignified, and even cheerful," as composed as if he had had a "wellequipped army of a hundred thousand veterans at his back," confident that he could hold his own until he was joined by the other three divisions.3

McClellan and the main part of his army had left South Mountain September 15, and advanced to the field of Antietam, taking up their position on the opposite side of Antietam Creek from Lee. One is pleased with the glimpses he obtains of the Union general in these days. Cox tells about a reconnaissance made by McClellan, Burnside, and himself in the afternoon of the 15th, when, standing on a hill in the midst of a large group of officers, they attracted the fire of the enemy's artillery. "I noted," adds Cox, "the cool and

1 The exact hour of Jackson's arrival is not stated, but at sunrise he was at Shepherdstown, between three and four miles from Sharpsburg, with the Potomac River to ford. O. R., vol. xix. part i. p. 1007.

2 Ibid., p. 914.

3 John G. Walker, article Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 675.

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