Lee Letters of General Robert E. Lee

[Gcoxusa]

I have been reading a book that contains letters written by General Robert E. Lee to his wife and children. I would like to know how these letters would have delivered during the Civil War. The main reason for the question is due to the sensitive information that is being written. General Lee might mention planned troop movements and if that letter were to fall into the wrong hands it would have grave consequences. And for that matter ... how did the Generals communicate with each other in the field? Was there some kind of code being used?

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Grant and Stanton (?) used cyphered telegraph code. Grant mentions it in his memoirs. I didn't realize Lee wrote letters to his family that mentioned any classified troop movements. I think the Generals used couriers to send information back and forth. Perhaps some in code and maybe not. However, if something is in code, it takes time to decode it. Couriers were captured with papers that told what some immediate plans were. Not unknown.

 

[hoosier]

Communications in the field were generally sent by courier. I won't say that codes were never used, but it was certainly not uncommon for messages to be sent without any coding.

A famous example is Lee's Special Order #191, detailing his plans for troop movements as his army moved into Maryland in 1862. A copy of that order, wrapped around three cigars, was discovered by a Union soldier, who passed it along the chain of command. Eventually it reached the eyes of George McClellan, who exclaimed "Here is a paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home!"

McClellan evidently felt that his performance in the subsequent Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) was good enough to constitute a whipping of Bobby Lee, since he didn't go home until a couple of months later, when Lincoln told him to.

 

[bankerpapaw]

Also prisoners on both sides "spilled their guts" when questioned.