September 13, 1862---Lucky 13

SEPTEMBER 13, 1862:      

 "Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home." So said Major General George Brinton McClellan, Commander of the United States Army of The Potomac, when men of the 27^th Indiana Regiment brought McClellan a copy of Lee’s Special Orders No. 191, outlining his entire Maryland battle plan. 

General D.H. Hill C.S.A. had apparently used his copy of Special Orders No. 191 as a cigar case---three cigars were tucked neatly within. 

Rarely has an opposing General been given such a battlefield advantage. But even here, McClellan dithered. Fearing the Orders were false (a possibility, since faked Orders had been a previous Confederate ruse), and convinced that he was outnumbered (he wasn’t, even on Lee’s papers, and Rebel desertions were a plague on Lee since he had entered Maryland) McClellan typically and timidly made far less than effective use of Special Orders No. 191.