General Robert E. Lee issued Special Order No.191 on September 9th 1862. It was signed by Lee's chief administrative officer Colonel Robert Hall Chilton and sent by special courier to the wing and division commanders.

On September 13th, 1862, Union commander General George B. McClellan sent a telegram to President Lincoln stating, "I have all the plans of the rebels."

Special Order No. 191 was sent directly to Major-General D.H. Hill from headquarters, but he also received a hand-written copy from Lt. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson. Major Gen. Hill is of interest because the "Lost Orders" (as they were called in the North and "Lost Dispatch" in the South) were found in an envelope and wrapped around three cigars. Hill was the only one that was known to smoke cigars and have access to the orders.

The envelope containing the orders was found in a field of clover approximately two miles south of Frederick, Maryland by First Sergeant John M. Bloss, Corporal Barton Warren Mitchell, and Private David Bur Vance of the Union's 27th Indiana Infantry. Two to three days prior to the troops of the 27th Indiana making camp in the field south of Fredrick it had been an encampment of the Confederates until September 10th, 1862.

As to Gen. Hill's involvement, when asked, he insisted that the orders were never signed for by himself or his AAG, Col. Ratchford, the only ones within Hill's command with the authority to sign for them. Hill said that the only copy that he received was the hand written copy provided by General Jackson (which is now in the North Carolina Historical Museum in Greensboro, N.C.).

Though it is still to this day a mystery as to how the "Lost Orders" ended up in the field, it has been questioned as to whether it was dropped in a careless manner or placed there by design. By what ever manner, it was a major turning point in the war.

When considering the possibility that the "Lost Orders" were placed in the field as an act of treason, General Lee's Adjutant General Robert Hall Chilton has been considered by some historians.

One interesting fact is that the Orders fell into the hands of of a person - Captain Samuel E. Pittman - who could clearly identify Chilton's signature as authentic. Captain Pittman was Assistant Adjutant General to General Alpheus Starkey Williams, the Union's acting XII Corps commander. Prior to the war Pittman had been a bank teller at the Michigan State Bank in Detroit. Chilton was stationed in Detroit and worked as an army paymaster until he resigned his commission and joined the Confederate army after the beginning of the war April 12th, 1861 at Fort Sumter South Carolina.

Chilton's memory loss is another factor which arouses suspicion in the minds of historians.

Robert Hall Chilton's Military record could be said to be less than sparkling. He graduated 48th in a 57 member class from West Point. If one takes a look at all major accounts of Chilton's involvement in the Civil War, according to Southall Freeman's study of the Southern command "Lee's Lieutenants," one sees that his actions appear to be less than favorable to the Confederate cause.

No matter how Special Orders 191 ended up in that field of clover two miles south of Fredrick Maryland, it brought about the battle of Antietam four days later from which the South never completely recovered. General Lee withdrew his forces, now tattered and beaten, back into Virginia after suffering a strategic catastrophe in his first raid in the North. President Lincoln used the Union victory at Antietam to sign the Emancipation Proclamation using slavery as discernable grounds for war.

The mystery of the "Lost Orders" will remain a mystery as the only one that knew for sure how - or if - the orders were lost, took his secret to his grave over a hundred years ago. The fact that it happened at all could have and most likely did change the face of our nation forever and led us to where we are today.

References

• Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red, 1983, New York, p. 349
• Freeman, Douglas Southall. Lee's Lieutenants, Chas. Scribner, NY, 1943

Copyright © 2003 Lee Ennis
All rights reserved

About the Author

Lee Ennis was born in Yorktown, Virginia in 1952. Since then he has lived and worked in many places and done many things to make a living. Lee worked as a musician until the age of thirty when he met his lovely wife, Dawn. Since his marriage, he has settled down to writing full time. Recently Lee has been published both online, in "Seven Seas Magazine," and in print in "Skyline Literary Magazine," the "Taj Mahal Review," and "The Golden Wings," an anthology of world poetry.

This article is Lee's third appearance in Kudzu Monthly. His poetry was featured in Life Gives Death a Ride in the January 2002 issue, and his Harriet Tubman, the Moses of Her People appeared in the Febuary 2002 issue. Images: "The Lost Dispatch," Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-B8184-3287 To Cite this Article in MLA: Ennis, Lee. "The Mystery of the Lost Cigars." The Kudzu Monthly July 2003, (current date) <http://kudzumonthly.com/kudzu/jul03/SpikeBySpike.html>.

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