near Leesburg, and encamped in the vicinity of Frederick City.
Of this army, thirty regiments of infantry, one battalion of infantry, one cavalry regiment, and four batteries were from North Carolina. These were distributed as follows: The Fifteenth regiment was in McLaws division; Ransom’s brigade of four regiments was under Walker, as also were the Twenty-seventh, Forty-sixth and Forty-eighth; the Sixth was with Hood; the Twenty-first and the First battalion were in Ewell s division; Branch with five regiments, and Fender with four, were under A. P. Hill; Garland with five, Anderson with four, and Ripley with two regiments were in D. H. Hill’s division. The cavalry was under Stuart, and the batteries were scattered.
It had been supposed that as the Confederates advanced, the Federal garrisons at Harper s Ferry and Martinsburg would be withdrawn. Although General McClellan advised this, General Halleck prevented it. So, General Jackson, General McLaws and General Walker were sent to invest these places, and the rest of the army Longstreet’s and D. H. Hill’s divisions was ordered to cross South mountain and move toward Boonsboro, where the army was to be concentrated on the fall of Harper’s Ferry.
Meanwhile, General McClellan, Pope having been relieved of command, was advancing by slow stages toward
his adversaries, and cautiously trying to discover their intentions. On the i3th he reached Frederick, just after it had been evacuated by the Confederates. There he received, says Longstreet, such a complete revelation of his adversary s plans and purposes as no other commander, in the history of war, has ever received at a time so momentous.[1] A copy of Lee’s celebrated order No. 191, frequently known as the "lost dispatch," was found by Private Mitchell, of the Twenty-seventh In-
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- ↑ From Manassas to Appomattox.
