November 25, 1861 (Sunday): The Secret Agent Reports

Rose Greehow, Confederate Spy

                                                                                                November 25, 1861.

   This is from undoubted source-a secret agent of theirs.  The plan is to affect to go into winter quarters, but extensive and active preparations are going on, making pontoons, collecting provisions, making preparations for building batteries as they proceed.  The army is to be divided into five divisions:  Hooker below: McCall, McDowell and McClellan in the center, and Banks above.  When all is ready a simultaneous movement is to be made by divisions, and a desperate attack is to be made on the part of Banks and Hooker at each side to outflank and get behind the Confederate Army and fortifications, while the three central push on, fortifying as they go.  The move is to be a desperate one, and every effort made to secure success.  The expression used was that they would be in Richmond before two weeks.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 5, Part 1, Page 978

This enclosure was in a report from Thomas Jordan, an aide to Beauregard, to Secretary of War Benjamin.  Jordan was, in addition to his military duties, a recruiter of informants within Union lines.  He also devised some of the codes used to communicate with them.  In much the way the information provided by Pinkerton detectives misled and confused McClellan, some of the information obtained by Jordan was of little value.  The idea described here, that McClellan would somehow feign inaction before striking a swift and decisive blow, should have seemed improbable even without the benefit of hindsight.