order then, and preserved it until his death. Who lost the order from General Lee is not known, but it is absolutely certain that General Hill did not lose it.
To relieve Harper’s Ferry and to strike the divided Confederates, it became necessary for McClellan to pass through the gaps of South mountain, for the direct turnpike by Knoxville was not suited to military purposes. He accordingly put his army in motion "to cut the enemy in two and beat him in detail."[1] Franklin and Couch were to move through Crampton s gap, and their duty was first to cut off, destroy, or capture McLaws command, and relieve Colonel Miles "at Harper’s Ferry; if too late to aid Miles, they were to turn toward Sharpsburg to prevent the retreat of Longstreet and D. H. Hill, who were to be attacked by the main body. All the rest of McClellan s army set out, by way of Turner’s gap and Fox’s gap, for Boonsboro. This main part of the army was intended to crush Longstreet and D. H. Hill, and then to join Franklin against Jackson, McLaws, and Walker.
So unexpected was the movement, and so successfully did the Federals mask the march of their army on the two gaps, that General Stuart’s cavalrymen, ever untiring and daring, had not found out up to the time of attack on these gaps that McClellan s whole army was before them. When the cannon opened at Crampton’s gap, General McLaws, who heard it from Maryland heights, attached no special significance to it. He says in his official report, "I felt no particular concern about it and General Stuart, who was with me on the heights and had just come in from above, told me that he did not believe there was more than a brigade of the enemy." This "brigade" turned out to be Slocum’s division of Franklin’s corps, and Smith’s division of the same corps was soon added. The gap at that time was held only by Colonel Munford with two regiments of cavalry, Chew’s battery,
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- ↑ Order to Franklin, September
