Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/139

 Life and Character of Lt.- General D. H. /////. 131

tration of our various corps dispersed in strategic directions in season for the bloody issue at Sharpsburg."

THE LOST ORDER.

Imbued with an earnest devotion to the cause, which rose on occa- sion to the height of enthusiasm, Hill did not hesitate to denounce, in unmeasured terms, those who evaded duty in our armies, when the conditions were such as to plainly demand the active service of every able-bodied son of the South. One of his random shots at the bomb-proofs of the Confederacy wounded a gentleman who, having done nothing in the war worthy to be written, determined to write something in the vain hope that it would be read by future generations. Prompted by petty revenge, he recklessly asserted that General D. H. Hill had thrown a copy of a general order upon the ground in his camp at Frederick City, which, being afterwards picked up and handed to McClellan, gave him an idea of the move- ments and location of the different portions of Lee's army.

If this order had been literally carried out, it will appear, from an inspection of its contents, that 'on the day when McClellan attacked Hill, at South Mountain, he had reason to believe, and must have thought that Longstreet was occupying the mountains, supported by Hill. But we are not left to conjecture on that subject. McClellan wrote General Franklin from Frederick City on the I4th, just after he had read the " Lost Order" (Series i, Volume XIX, part i, page 45, of Official Records), that Longstreet was to move to Boonsbo- rough and there halt with D. H. Hill, and directed Franklin to make his dispositions with an eye both to the relief of the garrison at Harper's Ferry and the capture of Longstreet and Hill. The plan outlined in the letter is predicated upon the supposition that Long- street and Hill were together, and constituted the main body of an army, which he estimated in another report to General Halleck at 1 20,000. If it were not manifest from this letter that McClellan was misled by the order, and his opinion corroborated by the skilful dis- position of Hill's troops (see 2 Battles and Leaders of Civil War, pages 559 to 581), his report proves, beyond all question, that he thought the force in his front was 30,000 strong, composed of Hill's division, 15,000, with Longstreet's and a portion of Jackson's com- mand. (Report of McClellan, Series i, Volume XIX, part i, page 55, of Official Records.) The skill of Hill, then, and the order com-