Hey everyone, thanks for downloading episode number 183 of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. Hello y'all. Welcome to the podcast. As y'all recall at the end of the last episode, a copy of

Robert E. Lee's Special Order's number 191 had fallen into the hands of George McClellan. In Civil

War lore, this incident during the Antietam campaign has been seen as a golden opportunity, a pivotal

moment, and it has come to be known rather dramatically as simply the lost order. Lee

composed number 191 on Tuesday, September 9, 1862 at his headquarters at Frederick in Western

Maryland, where his invading army was halted briefly, while Lee was contemplating nothing less than

delivering a knockout blow to the Yankees and winning independence for the Confederacy. You see

General Lee was on a roll. In June, he had beaten McClellan in front of Richmond. In August, he had given

John Pope a good kicking at Bull Run in front of Washington. Now in September, in crossing the

Potomac and striking north, Lee intended to draw the Union Army after him and away from its

Washington base. In due course, either in Western Maryland or up in Pennsylvania, Lee would maneuver

the Yankees into a decisive battle. Robert E. Lee in Recalling the Antietam campaign after the war

was quite clear about his intentions to inflict a crushing defeat upon the Union Army, which was

in McClellan's hands once again. He said, quote, I went into Maryland to give battle, end quote.

Lee added that if all had gone as he planned, then quote, I would have fought and crushed him.

To clear the way for his march west and north, Lee had to establish a new line of supply and

communication back to Virginia through the Shenandoah Valley. And to do that, he had to dispose of the

federal garrisons guarding the lower valley at Martinsburg and Harpersferry. Lee spelled out his

plan for doing that in special orders, number 191. Lee is signed at 26 at the Army's 40 brigades

to the task of clearing the Yankees out of Martinsburg and Harpersferry. In thus dividing his army in

the face of superior forces, Lee was taking a risk, but it seems to have given him little real

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