class="center">MAP OF THE PORTION OF CHAMBERSBURG
Burnt by order of General Early, July 30, 1864.

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THE
BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG,
PENNSYLVANIA.

BY

REV. B. SCHNECK., D. D.,

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.[1]

B. S. S.

Chambersburg, Oct. 31st, 1864.

THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG.

LETTER I.

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.[2] 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