Special Order 191 - Lee’s "Lost Order", Is Found and Printed

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Raynors Spring Americana Auction - Feb 28 Par...

By Raynor's Historical Collectible Auctions

Feb 28, 2026

Set Reminder 2026-02-28 10:00:00 2026-02-28 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Raynors Spring Americana Auction - Feb 28 Part1 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/raynors-historical-auctions/raynors-spring-americana-auction---feb-28-part1-22414
Fascinating Americana Auction offering item in all periods of American history., from colonial through WWII. The items are offered as Autographs, Broadsides, Civil Wat Relics, Civil War Diaries, Confederate items. Political, Presidential, 20th Century Israel, Early Sports. Raynor's Historical Collectible Auctions bob@hcaauctions.com

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• Lot Description
  An authentic and original issue of “The Evening Post”, January 2, 1863, New York, 4pp. ‘horse blanket’, with the front page printing of General Lee’s General Order #191 which was a general movement order issued by Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee in September 1862, during the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War.Lee's General Order 191, also known as the "Lost Order," was a pivotal Confederate document from September 9, 1862, during the Maryland Campaign, detailing Robert E. Lee's dispersed plans to capture Harpers Ferry and threatening Union positions, but a lost copy found by Union troops gave General George B. McClellan crucial intelligence, allowing him to attack Lee's separated forces and leading to the Battle of Antietam. The order revealed Lee's divided army, enabling McClellan to confront them piecemeal, though the timing and impact remain debated by historians.In early September of 1862, following the Confederate victory at Second Manassas, the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee moved into Maryland at Frederick. There General Lee wrote out his plans in great detail. On September 9 Lee issued Special Order 191 giving strategic information on the division of units at the beginning of his Maryland campaign. A copy was sent to General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, who in his own hand made a copy that he sent to General D. H. Hill. Hill kept the order with his papers, which were later deposited in the North Carolina State Archives by his family. When the Union Army moved into Frederick, an Indiana private found three cigars wrapped in another copy of Special Order 191, also addressed to General Hill. Controversy and mystery surround the story of how the orders came to be there. However, the dispatch was passed through the Union chain of command and gave General George B. McClellan advance notice of Lee's army's movements. Subsequently, Lee was defeated and driven back by McClellan's army at Sharpsburg (Antietam), Maryland, September 17, 1862. Later, stories of the "Lost Dispatch" appeared in newspapers, and D. H. Hill was largely blamed. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Hill carried on an extensive correspondence to discover the circumstances surrounding the misplaced order. Finally, in 1885, Hill conceded that "an order from Lee directed to me was lost, I do not now doubt," but he denied that he had received it. To this day, students of the Civil War, argue the questions of who lost the Special Order 191, how it happened, and what were the long-term implications.
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