It is impossible to separate Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s legacy from Special Orders No. 191, the famed Robert E. Lee “Lost Orders” found by Union soldiers in a field near Frederick, Md., during the September 1862 Maryland Campaign. For the remainder of his life, McClellan was unable to extinguish the prevailing argument that he had acted with undue hesitancy after learning of Lee’s campaign intentions on September 13, and that despite tactical triumphs at South Mountain and Antietam in the coming days, “Little Mac” allowed Lee’s battered army to escape back to Virginia, prolonging the war for another 2½ years. That argument has continued to hold sway for more than a century. Thankfully, a new study by Gene Thorp and Alexander Rossino (, Savas Beatie) explores the controversy’s deepest roots, painting a compelling picture of what truly occurred in those critical weeks in the
