← Back to the front page

The Incredible American Generals that Defined their Eras

Khalid Elhassan May 4, 2022 36 min

19. The Union’s Lowest Point

A copy of Special Orders No. 191, displayed at Crampton’s Gap, Maryland. Wikimedia

During the American Civil War, the autumn of 1862 might have been the lowest point for the federal government and for the Union’s cause. The year had started promisingly enough with a campaign that sought to capture Richmond. Things went well at first in what came to be known as the Peninsula Campaign, but a series of mistakes turned it into a fiasco. Then the Confederates under General Robert E. Lee dealt the federals a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Second Bull Run, and early in September, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia invaded Maryland.

Things were looking bleak, with Britain and France about to recognize the Confederates’ independence, when the Union caught an unexpected break. On September 13^th, as the Army of the Potomac hurried to catch up with Lee, Union Army Corporal Barton Mitchell arrived at a campsite recently vacated by the enemy. There, he found an envelope with three cigars wrapped in some paper. The papers turned out to be Special Orders No. 191, in which Lee had spelled out his army’s movements.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.