General Longstreet was ordered to advance to Boonsborough, wherever in hell that might be. General McLaws would follow Longstreet, but then branch off to help capture Harper’s Ferry. General Walker was to cooperate with Jackson and McLaws by cutting off another road to Harper’s Ferry, and once that Northern garrison was taken, the three generals were to join the rest of the army at Boonsborough or Hagerstown. Hagerstown? Delaney’s geography was shaky, but he was fairly certain Hagerstown was a Maryland town close to the Pennsylvania border while Harper’s Ferry was in Virginia! Which surely meant one part of Lee’s army was going north, the other south, and so leaving the two parts vulnerable to separate attacks.

Delaney’s hands felt almost nerveless. The paper fluttered. He closed his eyes. Maybe, he told himself, he did not understand these things. He was no soldier. Perhaps it made sense to split an army? But it wasn’t his responsibility to decide if it made sense, but merely to send this news to the Northern army. Copy it, you fool, he told himself, but just as he opened his eyes to search Chilton’s table for a pen or pencil, he heard footsteps outside the tent.

“Delaney!” a cheerful voice called.

Delaney ducked out of the tent to see that Chilton had returned with General Lee himself. For a moment the usually suave Delaney was lost in confusion. The order was still in his hand, and that flustered him, then he remembered he had been given it by Chilton and so no guilt could be attached to its possession. “Good to see you, General,” Delaney finally managed to greet Lee.

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t shake hands?” Lee said, holding up his splinted and bandaged hands as explanation. “I had an altercation with Traveller. Well on the mend, now. And the other good news is that McClellan is back in command of the Federals.”

“I heard as much,” Delaney acknowledged.

“Which means our foes will dawdle,” Lee said with satisfaction. “McClellan is a man of undoubted virtues, but decision-making is not one of them. Chilton tells me you’re here to make sure we behave ourselves?”

Delaney smiled. “I’m truly here, General, because I wanted to see some action.” He told the lie smoothly. “Otherwise,” he continued, brushing his gray coat, “it would seem to me that this uniform is not properly earned.”

Lee returned the smile. “Witness your action, Delaney, by all means, but don’t get too close to McClellan’s men, for I should be sorry to lose you. You’ll dine tonight?” He turned as the clerk who had brought the copy of Order 191 to Chilton’s tent reappeared with a sheaf of envelopes that he hesitantly held toward Colonel Chilton. “That’s the order?” Lee asked Chilton.

“Seven copies,” the clerk confirmed, “and Colonel Chilton’s original is in that gentleman’s possession,” he indicated Delaney, who guiltily flourished the original copy.

“Eight copies in all?” Lee frowned and took the envelopes from the clerk and, as swiftly as his awkward bandages allowed, leafed through them to read the addressees’ names. “Do we need one for Daniel Hill?” Lee asked, flourishing the empty envelope addressed to General D. H. Hill that was evidently waiting for the original copy of the order in Delaney’s hand. “Jackson will surely copy Hill the relevant parts?” Lee said.