town, and not until the full crisis was reached, did desperation, in a few instances, lead to desperate acts.

“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 (Printing Establishment of the German Reformed Church). 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 (the street from Carlisle to Greencastle), 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 (now Brown’s) hotel, which was only partially destroyed, sweeping every building (except Mrs. Brandt’s dwelling), 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.

The Rebels Enter Chambersburg

“The rebels having been interrupted in their entrance into the town until daylight, they employed their time in planting two batteries in commanding positions, and getting up their whole column, fully three thousand strong. About 4 o’clock on Saturday morning they opened with their batteries and fired some half a dozen shots into the town, but they did no damage. Immediately thereafter their skirmishers entered by almost every street and alley running out west and southwest; and finding their way clear, their cavalry, to the number of eight hundred and thirty-one, came in under the immediate command of General McCausland. General Bradley Johnson was with him, and also the notorious Major Harry Gilmore.

Plundering