Sold – The Telegram That Gave President Lincoln the Momentous News

During the first week of June 1863, Confederates of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia began leaving their positions around Fredericksburg, Virginia and heading northwest. This marked the start of the Gettysburg campaign. On June 11, lead elements of the Union Army began to move north from Fredericksburg in that general direction. While both armies remained in Virginia, on June 14, 1863, Brig. Gen. Daniel Tyler assumed command of the Federal troops at Harpers Ferry. Lying at the northern tip of Virginia (now West Virginia) where that state meets Maryland, Tyler would find himself perfectly situated, and be responsible for, tracking Confederate movements north into Maryland and beyond. At this early point, JEB Stuart’s cavalry masked the Confederate army’s movements behind the Blue Ridge effectively, and Union General Joseph Hooker, then commander of the Army of the Potomac, did not know Lee’s intentions.

… A line of troops 10 or 12 miles long moving in the direction of Berrysville toward Shepherdstown ford. It looks as if Lee’s movement is towards Hagerstown and on Pennsylvania

The campaign really became a reality when Confederate General Ewell began crossing the Potomac River from Virginia into Maryland late on June 15, along with Jenkins’s cavalry brigade. Hooker and his army remained in Virginia, with Hooker himself at Fairfax, unsure of the positions of Lee’s various corps and divisions and in desperate need of information about their destinations. His attention, and indeed that of the Union leadership, now focused on General Tyler, to whose lot it fell to provide up to date information on Confederate troop movements.

Author Craig Swain, in his definitive article on Union telegraph network topology during the Gettysburg campaign, relates that messages from Tyler were initiated at Maryland Heights, which line connected to a station at Point of Rocks further east, and from there signals passed to the Sugarloaf Mountain station. That station sent the telegrams on to Baltimore and the War Department in Washington. Telegrams to Hooker from Tyler could be sent directly via another route, but telegrams sent that other way actually took longer to arrive; so messages addressed to Hooker were generally sent to the War Department and forwarded on by it upon receipt. Swain states that many of Tyler’s dispatches from June 23-26 have notes indicating the times received at the War Department, and these timelines indicate a situation where, since Tyler’s telegrams arrived in Washington faster than those sent to Hooker directly, the War Department was likely privy to more information – faster – than the commander in the field, with regard to the tactical situation.

On July 1, 1863, Tyler wrote and sent to the War Department a report about his activities and observations from June 15 to June 26, and this document is published in the Official Records, Series 1, Part 2, Volume 27. Tyler reports that on June 17, he telegraphed that there were 7-8,000 Confederate infantry in Maryland, while some cavalry were “running into Pennsylvania.” These would have been quick raids rather than substantial units. The next day, Tyler wrote that the rebel infantry and artillery are “holding on” in Maryland. From information “gleaned from the country and our scouts,” wrote Tyler on June 19, “no force exceeding 8-10,000 men” had crossed from Virginia into Maryland. The following day he reported that Ewell had 30,000 men between Winchester, Virginia and Williamsport, Maryland, of which just 8-10,000 men had crossed beyond Sharpsburg; some of these were foraging for supplies into Pennsylvania. Deserters from the Army of Northern Virginia claimed they were told their destination was Washington. However, on the night of June 21, at 10 PM, Tyler telegraphed Hooker that his scouts had positive information that 20,000 Confederate infantry were in the area of Sharpsburg. Since there were few cavalry, it was still unclear to Tyler what was in the offing. The next afternoon at 2 PM, he telegraphed that the rebels were “exclusively collecting plunder” in Maryland and into Pennsylvania, and that a wagon train was carrying that plunder back into Virginia.

The situation changed materially late in the afternoon of June 22, 1863. At 5 PM, Tyler relates that he telegraphed Hooker with news that “the enemy has been crossing to the Maryland side [of the Potomac River] all day.” General Early’s division crossed that day, and according to Tyler there were now 30-40,000 Confederates in Maryland, with their artillery and baggage. And as yet unknown to Tyler, some of Rodes’s division crossed north of Maryland and entered Greencastle, the first Confederate infantry in Pennsylvania. Lee’s plans still remained inscrutable, but not for long.

Tyler received updated scouting information, and his report for the morning of June 23 says it all:? “It is apparent that the enemy is moving in force into Pennsylvania, and at 10:00 a.m., [I] telegraphed Major General Hooker.” This is that original telegram, on imprinted United States Military Telegraph note paper, containing the first notification that Lee was marching on Pennsylvania, as received by the War Department and containing its notation “Rec’d 11:30 AM 23rd.” It is addressed “By telegraph from Md. Heights,” dated June 23, 1863, and is to Gen. Hooker. “The troops that were at Sharpsburg yesterday have all left, the infantry and artillery for Hagerstown and the cavalry for Frederick. Gen. Early’s division, 34 pieces of artillery and about 15,000 infantry, passed on yesterday to reinforce Rodes at Hagerstown. The signal officer just reports that the atmosphere is clear, and that he can see a line of troops 10 or 12 miles long moving in the direction of Berrysville toward Shepherdstown ford. It looks as if Lee’s movement is towards Hagerstown and on Pennsylvania. Gen. Ewell, I am sure, passed through Sharpsburg yesterday in an ambulance.” The Battle of Gettysburg was just eight days away.

President Lincoln visited the small War Department Telegraph Office morning, afternoon and evening, sometimes staying all night there. Since there was no such office at the Executive Mansion, it was where he received all his telegrams and obtained the latest news from the armies at the front. The place was a refuge for the President, who waited for incoming dispatches and talked while they were being deciphered. The book “Lincoln in the Telegraph Office” relates the story. As this telegram was received at the War Department Telegraph Office and has its notation, it would be the very document that brought Lincoln the momentous news. He may have read it himself, holding this paper.