Special Order 191- A ruse?

[ole]

Sears points to Douglas as a prime suspect. Chilton is a fine example of the low quality of Lee's small staff. He dispatches a top secret document with its receipt attached. The receipt is never returned and the staff never notices. Truly unbelievable.

Still, why would Lee reveal his dispositions?

 

[sf46]

Who knows? Interesting theory, though.

 

[STRI Volunteer]

Actually, this is sloppy staff work on the part of the General to whom the
orders were addressed, Daniel Harvey Hill. It was his aide, Major John
Ratchford who knew the orders were duplicates, and was careless with them.
The orders were opened, meaning they got to Hill as it was only the two of
them had the authority to open sealed orders from HQ. Regulations are
very clear on who can and can't open sealed orders, any courier with
opened sealed orders from HQ would be presumed to be a spy.

We also know what happened to DH Hill after Lee figured it out from
reading McClelland's testimony in the newspapers. Hill was sent to NC
to "recruit" while Ratchford was re-assigned to Hood out west. Lee's
chief staff officer, Walter Taylor admitted as much post-bellum in his
memoirs.

 

[rpkennedy]

Actually, this is sloppy staff work on the part of the General to whom the
orders were addressed, Daniel Harvey Hill. It was his aide, Major John
Ratchford who knew the orders were duplicates, and was careless with them.
The orders were opened, meaning they got to Hill as it was only the two of
them had the authority to open sealed orders from HQ. Regulations are
very clear on who can and can't open sealed orders, any courier with
opened sealed orders from HQ would be presumed to be a spy.

We also know what happened to DH Hill after Lee figured it out from
reading McClelland's testimony in the newspapers. Hill was sent to NC
to "recruit" while Ratchford was re-assigned to Hood out west. Lee's
chief staff officer, Walter Taylor admitted as much post-bellum in his
memoirs.

It might have been part of the reason why Hill was sent to North Carolina but a far bigger part was that he just rubbed virtually everyone in the AoNV the wrong way (including Lee). Hill is one of those people who are talented but have a huge ego in regards to that talent and comes across as an arrogant jackass. It got to the point where people could not work with him without causing friction. The same thing happened when he went out west to the AoT.

R

 

[Craig L Barry]

It might have been part of the reason why Hill was sent to North Carolina but a far bigger part was that he just rubbed virtually everyone in the AoNV the wrong way (including Lee). Hill is one of those people who are talented but have a huge ego in regards to that talent and comes across as an arrogant jackass. It got to the point where people could not work with him without causing friction. The same thing happened when he went out west to the AoT.

R

This is true, Robert E Lee said of DH Hill, "...he had such a queer temperment, you never
knew quite what to expect out of him." Lee also said he could never be sure it was Hill but
one thing is certain, it was sloppy staff work all around. Longstreet burned his copy of
the orders, Jackson tore them into little pieces and ate them...and somebody else wrapped
them in 3 cigars and left in the tall grass around DH Hill's just vacated campsite.

 

[Nathanb1]

Still, why would Lee reveal his dispositions?

You mean to his officers? Sorry...I can't figure out exactly what you mean here. (If it was Stonewall Jackson, I could understand, but Lee frequently wrote fairly explicit orders about who he wanted where.)

 

[ole]

You mean to his officers? Sorry...I can't figure out exactly what you mean here. (If it was Stonewall Jackson, I could understand, but Lee frequently wrote fairly explicit orders about who he wanted where.)

If it were a ruse, Lee exposed his dispositions rather clearly. If the intent was to mislead, why mislead with your actual orders?

Longstreet was up near Hagerstown; Jackson was to invest Harpers Ferry; McLaws was to hang around the lower Valley and Hill was to watch the gaps. It could not have been a ruse.

Perfect time to catch Lee scattered. Someone other than McC might have gained some advantage from that intel.

 

[rhp6033]

You might remember the tale from WWII, whereby British intelligence took a body from the morgue, dressed it as a Royal Marine on courier duty, attached a briefcase to his body with a chain and lock, and dumped him into the sea by Submarine in a location where it would wash ashore on the beaches of Spain. The contents of the briefcase included messages to the effect that the next Allied offensive would be in Greece, instead of Sicily. The information made it's way back to German Intelligence and was accepted by the authorities, thereby reducing significantly the number and quality of German divisions the Allied invasion forces faced in 1943.

In a book on the subject I read recently, the author goes to some length to demonstrate that this was just a variation of a "false bag" operation, which had been used in military campaigns for centuries. The basic premise was that a bag containing valuable intelligence would be available to accidently "fall into the hands of the enemy", and thereby mis-inform him of the purportrator's intentions. Variations on the scheme have the bag being placed on soldiers who had died on the battlefield, or left in the road as if it had fallen off a horse or wagon, or placing it upon a person who consents to be captured in order to "deliver" the bag.

The problem with all such operations is that the "false bag" has to be left in such a place and manner so that it is certain to be found and delivered to the higher command, but not so obviously left behind as to arouse suspicion. The contents of the bag have to be clear enough to lead the enemy to the desired conclusions, but vague enough so that it seems genuine.

In the case of the special orders wrapped in cigars, it seems unlikely that such a "false bag" operation would have involved leaving the document in a field where it may or may not be found by passing soldiers. The odds against it being found before it is destroyed by the elements are just too high. For that reason I find it unlikely that the "lost order" was such a "false bag" operation.

Add to that the fact that Antetiam wasn't the best place for Lee to pitch a battle, with the Potomac immediately to his rear. I would suspect that Lee would have wanted to avoid a pitched battle, and if given the opportunity would have tried to send McClellan off on a wild-goose chase elsewhere.

I think I read somewhere that Lee didn't know about the lost order for quite some time, he had know idea that McClellan had information other than what he could reasonably garner from scouts and citizen reports.

 

[Nathanb1]

If it were a ruse, Lee exposed his dispositions rather clearly. If the intent was to mislead, why mislead with your actual orders?

Longstreet was up near Hagerstown; Jackson was to invest Harpers Ferry; McLaws was to hang around the lower Valley and Hill was to watch the gaps. It could not have been a ruse.

Perfect time to catch Lee scattered. Someone other than McC might have gained some advantage from that intel.

Okay--gotcha. Nope, I think it was a total accident. No way it was a ruse. rhp6033 explains it very well.

 

[prroh]

As a side note, The 27th IN, whose men found the order, was the tallest regiment, on average in the Union Army. The commander of Co D was the tallest man in the AoP, 6'11 1/2" and no man in that company under six feet tall. Wonder what was in the water in that part of IN where the regiment was recruited?

 

[prroh]

If it were a ruse, Lee exposed his dispositions rather clearly. If the intent was to mislead, why mislead with your actual orders?

Longstreet was up near Hagerstown; Jackson was to invest Harpers Ferry; McLaws was to hang around the lower Valley and Hill was to watch the gaps. It could not have been a ruse.

Perfect time to catch Lee scattered. Someone other than McC might have gained some advantage from that intel.

The two key elements in this story is 1) the orders were factual. Lee could not be certain that McClellan would waste 1 to 2 days in acting upon them. A faster response would be a near certain smashing defeat for the bulk of the ANV and 2) If Lee was trying to draw the AoP into battle, then he would not have ordered a withdrawal into VA which he rescinded upon hearing of the fall of harpers Ferry.

The location of the packet was far too obscure to guarantee it being found.

 

[J_Man0507]

If it were a ruse, Lee exposed his dispositions rather clearly. If the intent was to mislead, why mislead with your actual orders?

Longstreet was up near Hagerstown; Jackson was to invest Harpers Ferry; McLaws was to hang around the lower Valley and Hill was to watch the gaps. It could not have been a ruse.

Perfect time to catch Lee scattered. Someone other than McC might have gained some advantage from that intel.

If it were a ruse, it was truly a poor attempt at one. As has already been stated by many in this thread, if you are going to try and fool a person, then why not put in false information, not the real McCoy? Lee knew McClellan, and knew his penchant for over exaggerating numbers and being afraid of being outnumbered. Why not just boost his numbers to somewhere 150,000 and scare the living daylights out of Little Mac?

While it is an interesting hypothesis, it was not Lee's style to try and trick an opposing general by using false information. It is a good tactic, to be sure, and has been used other times in history to great effect, but it was not the way that Lee did things. He was very up front about things and would either choose good ground to defend, or throw his men forward in an all out assault and try and take the enemy by sheer power. The closest he comes to using a ruse is splitting his forces at Chancellorsville, and even then, he did not leave behind false information.

Special Order 191 a ruse? I think not. Just a case of an order falling out of the pocket of a courier most likely.