Overview

""Stimulating and provocative. This is a fine piece of work."" -- James M. McPherson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom The loss of Robert E. Lee's Special Orders No. 191 is one of the Civil War's enduring mysteries. In this meticulous study, Alexander Rossino presents a bold new interpretation of the evidence surrounding the orders' creation, distribution, and loss outside Frederick, Maryland, in September 1862. Rossino makes extensive use of primary sources to explore these subjects and other important questions related to the orders, including why General Lee thought his army could operate north of the Potomac until winter; why Lee found it necessary to seize the Federal garrison at Harpers Ferry; what Lee hoped to accomplish after capturing Harpers Ferry; where Corporal Barton Mitchell of the 27th Indiana found the Lost Orders; and if D. H. Hill or someone else was to blame for losing the orders. The result is a well-documented reassessment that sheds new light while challenging long-held assumptions. Calamity at Frederick is the Confederate companion to The Tale Untwisted by Gene M. Thorp and Alexander Rossino, which told the story from the Union perspective.

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9781611216905

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"""'Calamity' is the word Robert E. Lee used to describe the loss of his campaign orders for the Confederate invasion of Maryland in 1862, and that is no overestimate. Yet, few single moments in the American Civil War have been so misunderstood as the loss and recovery of Special Orders No. 191; even the most detailed histories of the Maryland Campaign of 1862 fail to explain how Special Orders No. 191 were written, when and where they were lost and found, and what their exact consequences were. Rossino's Calamity at Frederick is the first exhaustive account of the mysteries surrounding the loss of Special Orders No. 191 and is admirable in its painstaking reconstruction of the creation of the Lost Orders, its thorough attention to the timing and location of their discovery, and above all, to the actual results of their discovery. This is a major contribution to the history of the Maryland Campaign of 1862 and shines a relentlessly illuminating spotlight on the incident which, maybe more than any other, cost the Southern Confederacy its bid for independence.""--Allen C. Guelzo, author of Gettysburg: The Last Invasion and Robert E. Lee: A Life ""Rossino's new study brings to light new sources that reveal how Special Orders No. 191 were conceived, distributed, and written. In turn, he poses a new theory about who may have been the culprit behind the loss of one of those copies. Calamity at Frederick is an important contribution to the growing historiography of the Maryland Campaign.""--Kevin R. Pawlak, author of Such a Clash of Arms: The Maryland Campaign, September 1862 and co-author of To Hazard All: A Guide to the Maryland Campaign, 1862 ""Stimulating and provocative. This is a fine piece of work.""--James M. McPherson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom"

Author Information

Alexander B. Rossino, PhD, is an award-winning scholar living in Maryland. He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including Six Days in September: A novel of Lee's Army in Maryland, 1862 and Their Maryland: The Army of Northern Virginia from the Potomac Crossing to Sharpsburg in September 1862 (Savas Beatie, 2021).

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