Accustomed as he was to his grandson’s love for enacting all sorts of rôles and declaiming laughably impossible orations, he had listened with real pride to this latest effusion. Deeming that the boy was improvising, he had wondered at the concise and professional wording of the supposedly imaginary dispatch.
But at Jimmie’s exclamation of disgust over the uninteresting nature of the document, he began to wonder if, after all, something of interest, even of importance, might not be sprawled on that much mishandled sheet of paper.
It was over this ground that part of the Confederate army had passed but a few hours earlier. Perhaps—
He took the paper from the boy, spread out its crumbled surface once more, verified at a glance what Jimmie had read aloud, then went on with the reading:
—“take the route toward Sharpsburg, cross the Potomac at the most convenient point, and by Friday night take possession of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and capture such of the enemy as may be at Martinsburg and intercept such as may attempt to escape from Harper’s Ferry.
“General Longstreet’s command will—”
Dad’s staring eyes shifted at this point to the bottom of the page; past much more closely written matter, in search of the signature.
He found it.
“(By command of General Robert E. Lee.) R. H. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant-General.”
On the line below was written: