Civil War Dispatch Sent by Major General George B McClellan

Major General George B. McClellan

(1826-1885) Photo from Library of Congress

This interesting telegraph dispatch sent by Major General George B. McClellan, commanding the Union forces during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. This order was issued as the campaign had almost ended, in a humiliating Union defeat, as the aggressive Robert E. Lee emerged, and beat back the numerically superior but tactically timid McClellan. The order directs Major General Erasmus Keyes, who had earlier in the day been ordered to hold at Yorktown, to "send all you have of Rushes (sic) Cavalry by land to Ft. Monroe" at the base of the Peninsula. The cavalry in question was the 6th Regiment of Cavalry (70th PA Volunteers), the so-called "Rush's Lancers." Docketed on the reverse as a telegraph dispatch, with a content summary. A terrific, and very scarce, Civil War item. Wartime field orders of any sort are very hard to come by, as most were not retained. From Heritage Collectors Society

Pittsburgh Daily Post Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Friday, October 30, 1885