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THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG.

NOTICE.

Those wishing to make the pastors of the different churches to be the almoners of their bounty, can send as follows:

First Reformed Church, Rev. P. S. Davis.

Second " " , Rev. B. S. Schneck.

Presbyterian, Rev. S. J. Niccolls.

Lutheran, German . Money can be sent to Rev. F. W. Conrad.

Methodist, Rev. Mr. Barnhart.

United Brethren in Christ, Rev. J. Dickson.

Roman Catholic, Rev. John Gerdeman.

Bethel , Mr. W. G. Mitchell.

THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG.

Agents wishing to canvass particular sections or counties, can apply to the author at Chambersburg.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

The following are a few of the notices given by the public press to this work in its first edition:

"I rejoice that this little book has met so rapid a sale, though I anticipated nothing less, as it is certainly one of the most thrilling narratives I have ever read. I shall send for a number of copies to be distributed here."--Rev. Dr. W. B. SPRAGUE, Albany, N. Y., in a letter to the author, Nov. 1, 1864.

THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

An Eye-Witness and a Sufferer.

With Corroborative Statements from the Rev. J. Clark, Hon. A. K. Mcclure, J. Hoke, Esq., Rev. T. G. Apple, Rev. B. Bausman, Rev. S. J. Niccolls, and J. K. Shryock, Esq.

In Letters to a Friend.

Second Edition, Revised and Improved, With a Plan of the Burnt Portion of the Town.

Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston. 1864.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by Lindsay & Blakiston, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Stereotyped by J. Fagan & Son.

Printed by Sherman & Co.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The first edition of this work having been exhausted in a single month, my worthy and enterprising publishers have encouraged the preparation of a second without delay.

It is hardly necessary to say, that the first edition was prepared under exceedingly unfavorable circumstances. Mind and body were in a state of exhaustion. For a month, and longer, the hours of each day were so much taken up with new and exciting cares and duties, as to unfit one in great measure for either mental or physical effort. Hence the unpretending little book was ushered into existence with a felt sense of its deficiencies.

An honest effort at improvement has been made in the present edition. No small portion of redundant matter has been left out, thus affording room for various statements which were not at hand before. I may here direct special attention to the masterly "Vindication of the Border" by Mr. Apple, the spirited contribution from the facile pen of Mr. Bausman, and the excellent article by Mr. Shryock. I have with forethought chosen to introduce other witnesses, besides myself, to testify in regard to the matter in hand, rather than to have the public rely upon my testimony only.

The list of names, with the amount of losses by those who owned houses, were to have been omitted in this edition; but so numerous were the protests from valued friends against such a course, that it has been allowed to remain. The space occupied by these details has, however, been reduced nearly one half, partly by employing smaller type, and partly by condensing the matter.

The engraving prefixed to the present edition, representing the burnt portion of the town, will, it is hoped, be acceptable to the reader. A steel plate engraving of the ruins of the town would have been given, if any satisfactory representation in so small a compass could have been furnished. But the judgment of the artist decided against its feasibility, and in favor of that herewith presented.

B. S. S.

CHAMBERSBURG, Oct. 31st, 1864.

THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

Your request to give you a succinct and, as far as may be, detailed account of the terrible calamity with which our town was visited on the 30th day of July, is received. You are pleased to say, that not only my long residence in the place, but the fact that I had, as on former occasions, so also during the present one, remained at home, gives me a right to speak on the subject, without fear of cavil or sneer from those who are ready, either from ignorance or something worse, to misrepresent the facts in the case, or apply the ill-timed weapons of ridicule and sarcasm against statements which have appeared in print. Passing by your other remarks, which I may be permitted to set down as emanating from personal partiality, I shall proceed to give you, as perfectly as I can, and as briefly as the subject will allow, a somewhat detailed account of the terrible disaster, with an honest endeavor to avoid all special pleading and overdrawn statements, dealing only in simple matters of fact, as far as I have been able to gather them, either from personal knowledge or unquestionable authority.

The Military Situation on the Border.

Before proceeding directly to the narration of the terrible catastrophe, it may be well to glance at the military situation on our border. This seems the more necessary from the fact, that a very large portion of the public prints have been misled into the belief, and consequently have unwittingly led their readers to believe that, "if the citizens of Chambersburg had turned out to resist the enemy, the burning and pillage of the town could have been averted," inasmuch as the rebel force, according to some statements, was very trifling, "scarcely numbering two hundred men." You, my dear friend, are laboring under this erroneous belief yourself. Allow me, therefore, to turn your attention to the following facts, which are well established, and which can be corroborated by any amount of evidence.

General Couch, the commander of this military division, had under his control a company of about one hundred men at Mercersburg, sixteen miles southwest from here, and a section of a battery of artillery in this place. This was the entire military force in the Cumberland Valley, under the control of our military commander, at the time. Several Pennsylvania regiments which had previously been organized for the defence of the border, through the efforts of our vigilant Governor, had been summoned by the General Government to Washington and the Potomac Army. One hundred men and two small cannon--that was all.

In reading over the two preceding paragraphs it occurred to me that the impression might have been made on your mind, that I wished to find fault with the General Government for removing from us all military protection on our border. I have no wish to do so in this letter. I am no military man, and hence am not so positive in my opinions as many other men, who are doubtless far more capable of forming a judgment in such matters. I merely mention the simple facts as they are patent to all who had the best opportunities of knowing the true state of things. So, too, in regard to both the Generals named. There is, since the burning of our town, a very strong feeling of disapprobation in our community and elsewhere against both, especially against General Couch. I cannot as yet share this feeling. I know how apt we are, especially when smarting under severe personal losses or grievances, to look around for some object upon which, or some person on whom, to lay the blame. For my part, I would rather err on the side of charity than on the side of unjust fault-finding and denunciation. I prefer, until better advised, to endorse the views of my friend Colonel A. K. McClure, himself one of the sufferers, and well posted in such matters. He says:

"General Averill possibly might have saved Chambersburg, and I know that General Couch exhausted himself to get Averill to fall back from Greencastle to this point. I do not say that General Averill is to blame, for he was under orders from General Hunter, and not subject to General Couch. He had a large force of the enemy in his front, and until it is clearly proved to the contrary, I must believe that he did his whole duty."

Yours, &c.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

"As to the result, I may say that the entire heart or body of the town is burned. Not a house or building of any kind is left on a space of about an average of two squares of streets, extending each way from the centre, with some four or five exceptions, where the buildings were isolated. Only the outskirts are left. The Court-house, Bank, Town Hall, German Reformed Printing Establishment, every store and hotel in the town, and every mill and factory in the space indicated, and two churches, were burnt. Between three and four hundred dwellings were burned, leaving at least twenty-five hundred persons without a home or a hearth. In value, three-fourths of the town was destroyed. The scene of desolation must be seen to be appreciated. Crumbling walls, stacks of chimneys, and smoking embers, are all that remain of once elegant and happy homes.

"As to the scene itself, it beggars description. My own residence being in the outskirts, and feeling it the call of duty to be with my family, I could only look on from without. The day was sultry and calm, not a breath stirring, and each column of smoke rose black, straight, and single; first one, and then another, and another, and another, until the columns blended and commingled; and then one vast and lurid column of smoke and flame rose perpendicularly to the sky, and spread out into a vast crown, like a cloud of sackcloth hanging over the doomed city; whilst the roar and the surging, the crackling and crash of falling timbers and walls, broke upon the still air with a fearful dissonance, and the screams and sounds of agony of burning animals, hogs, and cows, and horses, made the welkin horrid with sounds of woe. It was a scene to be witnessed and heard once in a lifetime."

To you and other friends, more or less familiar with Chambersburg, it will be interesting to specify a little more particularly the localities which have been laid waste. Beginning on East Market street, the one leading from Gettysburg to Pittsburg, directly through the centre of the town from east to west, the burning commenced simultaneously with the Court-house and Mansion-house . Facing the west from the Franklin railroad, the first building to the right is the residence of the Misses Denny, in a somewhat isolated position. This stands in its freshness and beauty, solitary and alone. Passing down two squares to the centre of the town, not one building and only two or three stables or barns remain on either side of this street of private residences, my own with all of my library and manuscripts, among the number. Passing further on westward for more than three squares in length, to the top of "New England Hill," five or six more or less isolated houses remain. The large Franklin Hotel, the Arcade Buildings, John B. Cook's houses and tannery, Riley's Hotel, the late Matthew Gillan's large dwelling, J. M. Wolfkill's store and dwelling, G. W. Brewer's and Mrs. Joseph Chambers's beautiful residences, are among the many valuable properties on this street, in ruins.

Then from North Main street , beginning with Mr. Benjamin Chambers's new residence, at the Falling Spring, and Mr. W. G. Reed's, on the corner, and from here on every house on both sides up the square, on to the centre, across it to Queen street, and up to Washington street, with the exception of Rev. Dr. Fisher's, Mr. Reineman's, Lehner's, and Feltman's dwellings, every house, shop, stable, &c., is gone. This street, as you know, contained more than three-fourths of all our stores, ware-rooms, and shops of business. Then comes Queen street, at the intersection of Second street, beginning at Brandt's hotel, which was only partially destroyed, sweeping every building , on both sides down to the creek, over two squares, including Dr. Culbertson's, N. Snider's, Barnard Wolff's, Mr. Wallace's, and other valuable dwellings and stores. Between eleven and twelve squares of the best part of the town are, therefore, in ruins, among them houses of many, inhabitants, whom you knew in former years as among your dearest friends, and in comfortable or affluent circumstances, many of them now reduced to penury and want.

After I had written the preceding pages, I found a minute and well-written statement of the subject now in hand in the "Franklin Repository," of this place, of August 24. I take pleasure in giving the following extracts from the same, instead of my own, as the matter was evidently prepared with judgment and care, under the supervision of its editor, Colonel McClure. He says:

"It seems inexplicable to persons and journals at a distance that General Couch, a Major-General commanding a department, with his border repeatedly invaded, should have no troops. The natural inclination is to blame the commander, for it is reasonable to suppose that he would endeavor to have an adequate command, and also that ample authority would be given him to have sufficient force. Just where the blame belongs, we do not choose now to discuss; but we do know that it was no fault of General Couch that he was unable to defend Chambersburg. He organized a Provost Guard regiment, some twelve hundred strong, expressly for duty in his department; the men were enlisted under a positive assurance, based on the order authorizing the organization, that they were to be kept on duty in the department. They were ordered to General Grant after the battles of the Wilderness. He organized six regiments of one hundred days' men before the advent of McCausland, and they were ordered to Washington as soon as they were ready to move. We are assured that Governor Curtin, fully two weeks before the burning of Chambersburg, formally pledged the State to make provision for arming, organizing, and paying the entire militia force of the border for home defence, if the General Government would simply give the uniforms; and we believe that General Couch pressed it upon the Washington authorities to uniform the entire force of the southern counties, assuring them that the people were willing to defend themselves if encouraged by granting them uniforms, so as to save them from inhuman butchery, but it was denied. We do not speak advisedly as to General Couch's correspondence with the Washington authorities; we give no statements at his instance, or based upon information received from him or his officers; but we do write whereof we know, when we say that every effort was made to carry these measures into effect, and that they were not sanctioned at Washington. While we do not assume to fix the responsibility of this terrible disaster, we do mean that it shall not fall upon a commander who was shorn of his strength and left helpless with his people.

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