Special Orders numbers

[Light Artillery]

Greetings All,

During a discussion with my Captain last night we became indecisive about Special Orders issued by a commanding officer. We were unsure if the Special Order number returns to “1” at the beginning of each year or if they are sequential. I went through my notes from last years Bedford Village Officer School and did not seeing anything I wrote down during the Adjutants class so I was hoping someone on the board could be of assistance.

Thank you in advance,

1st Lt. Stephen Curtis
Adjutant
Taylor’s Battery

[7thNJcoA]

In the Modern Military Special orders are on a 24hr basis. The same orders may be constant and 1,2,3,4,5 may be the same every day but the next day you can change the orders to add or eliminate the numbers if 1 is drink cool aid and 2 is eat chicken but you think cool aid is no longer needed now 2 becomes 1 and so on. Since we have used the same system in The Marines since 1775 with little change I would assume that it was similar in 1861-1865

[Pvt Schnapps]

Greetings All,

During a discussion with my Captain last night we became indecisive about Special Orders issued by a commanding officer. We were unsure if the Special Order number returns to “1” at the beginning of each year or if they are sequential. I went through my notes from last years Bedford Village Officer School and did not seeing anything I wrote down during the Adjutants class so I was hoping someone on the board could be of assistance.

Thank you in advance,

1st Lt. Stephen Curtis
Adjutant
Taylor’s Battery

Both General and Special Orders start over at "1" at the beginning of the calendar year (not to be confused with the fiscal year, which in this period ends on June 30).

A good source available on-line are the collected WD general and special orders for 1861-63 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=vGUkOckEzgsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22general+orders+of+the+war+department%22&ei=3OReR6CcD4HgiQHmic2fDg

Another good source, which gives one an idea of how orders were written at the operational level, as well as typical subjects, is:

Building the Victory, The Order Book of the Volunteer Engineer Brigade, Army of the Potomac October 1863-May 1865, Ed. By Philip Katcher, White Mane Books, 1998

Hope this helps -- enjoy!

[Silas]

A good source available on-line are the collected WD general and special orders for 1861-63 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=vGUkOckEzgsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22general+orders+of+the+war+department%22&ei=3OReR6CcD4HgiQHmic2fDg

Now that's a book with some interesting tidbits. Thanks for that link.