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Semi-Weekly Dispatch: November 5, 1861 Go To Page : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

An Address Delivered in Chambersburg Lodge of I. O. O. F., on the Death of Grand-Sire Thomas Wildey, by Wm. S. Everett, Esq.
(Column 3)

Summary: Address in which Everett pays tribute to Thomas Wildey of Baltimore, the founder of the Odd Fellowship in the United States, upon occasion of his death.

Recovery of a Scow
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Summary: Relates that the picket of the 29th Pennsylvania recovered a scow the previous Sunday that is suspected to be the main boat used in transporting Colonel Baker's soldiers from Harrison's Island to the Virginia shore. That boat had sunk when it was carrying the dead and wounded from the battle of Ball's Bluff on it. A theory is that the bodies rose to the surface upon decaying, thus lightening the load of the boat and allowing it too to rise to the surface.

Our First Six Months
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Summary: Assesses the state of the Dispatch after six months of publication. Suggests that the paper might have "gained in strength" more quickly during peace times, but that it was surely, if slowly, becoming a strong competitor with the other newspapers of the county.

Full Text of Article:

This number of the Semi-Weekly Dispatch completes the first six months of its publication, and in that time we have given to its patrons as many numbers as a weekly paper issues in a whole year. Our enterprise, so far, has met with but moderate success; but if the period at which it was started is taken into consideration, as well as the peculiarly deranged affairs of the country, since its commencement, growing out of the unhappy civil strife that is now deluging the land with blood, and which naturally unsettles the business of the country--we repeat, when these very unfavorable circumstances for commencing the publication of a newspaper, are remembered, then the success that has, thus far, attended the Semi-Weekly Dispatch is very flattering indeed, and we are by no means discouraged. When making our arrangements for the issuing of the paper, the country was at peace, and, with others, we had fondly hoped that that peace would not be disturbed; indeed, as a general thing, there was but few that anticipated such an event; but the very first number of the Dispatch issued, contained the startling news of the siege and fall of Fort Sumter--and from that period to the present, war has been desolating our fair land, bringing nothing but ruin and disaster to the best business prospects that ever smiled upon our people.

This state of affairs, of course, has interfered much with our prospects and anticipations, and but for which, this hour, even in the face of the great competition in Newspaper publication in the county with which the Dispatch necessarily had to contend, our enterprise would have attained a position far beyond our most sanguine expectations. As it is, we are gaining in strength, more slowly, however, than we would have done under ordinary circumstances, but, perhaps, more surely. We are occasionally adding to our list of subscribers the names of some of the best men in the county, while our Jobbing patronage, we feel assured, is as good as any of our cotemporaries [sic].

As we grow older we expect to grow larger, although our two issues a week, with our present size, contains nearly or quite as much reading matter as any other paper in the county, and we know that we give earlier news than any of them, frequently anticipating their publications, in this particular, as much as two or three days. This is the day of Railroads and Telegraphs; San Francisco, on the Pacific, is now in hourly communication with New York, on the Atlantic, a distance between them, perhaps, of 5000 miles, and while the whole world is astir with movements of the most momentous importance to mankind, all are desirous of obtaining a knowledge of the latest events that are transpiring at the very earliest moment. TO those who are not in receipt of a City Daily, a better source for early news cannot be obtained than the Dispatch, as it is the only Semi-Weekly paper published in the county, being issued every Tuesday and Friday of each week.

We expect to be able to enlarge the Dispatch at the end of the first volume, and to enable us to do so, we solicite [sic] a helping hand from our friends. Give us your Jobbing and Advertising patronage, and induce your neighbors to subscribe for the Dispatch. As it is the first attempt to establish a Semi-Weekly paper in the county, and as a Newspaper is the best index of the business character of the community in which it is published, the business men of the county should not fail to give our enterprise their warmest approval.

More Troops
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that the 1000 men of the 39th Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Light, passed through Chambersburg the previous Friday night on their way to Williamsport, Maryland. Their purpose is to reinforce the army of the Potomac.

Gen. Scott in Harrisburg
(Column 1)

Summary: Relates that General Winfield Scott, along with a number of his staff, passed through Harrisburg from Washington the previous Saturday on his way to meet his wife in New York.

Origin of Article: Harrisburg Telegraph

High Water
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports that heavy rain graced this section of the country between the previous Friday night and Sunday morning. As a result, the streams and the Conococheague are higher than they have been in the last twenty-five or thirty years.

Returned
(Column 1)

Summary: Announces that Mr. William V. Davis has returned to Chambersburg and has taken charge again of the Chambersburg Academy.
(Names in announcement: Mr. Wm. V. Davis)

Court Proceedings
(Column 1)

Summary: Reports on the case that John W. Reges brought before the court the previous week against his wife, Mary W. Reges, and her brothers, Augustus Duncan, Calvin Duncan, and William A. Duncan. The court ordered "null and void" the deed of trust made by Mary Reges to her brothers shortly before her marriage and without her husband's knowledge.
(Names in announcement: John W. Reges, Augustus Duncan, Calvin Duncan, Wm. A. Duncan, Mary W. Reges)

For Kentucky
(Column 2)

Summary: Announces that the company of volunteers being formed by Captain A. J. Brand will be leaving for Kentucky the following Monday. The company will join Colonel Stumbaugh's Regiment, which is part of the Negley Brigade. Captain Brand needs a few more men to complete his company before it departs the Chambersburg area.

Full Text of Article:

Captain A. J. Brand's Company of Volunteers, in process of formation in these place for several weeks past, and which is now nearly full, will leave on Monday next for Kentucky. Capt. Brand will attach his company to Col. Stumbaugh's (77th) Regiment, which is part of the Negley Brigade, now in that State, who have gone thither to assist that gallant and loyal people to drive the unprincipled, purjured [sic] rebel crew from her soil. What more glorious sight could be witnessed than Pennsylvania fleeing to the rescue of Kentucky; the sons of the old Keystone State offering up their lives and shedding their blood in defence of the homes and firesides of the people of that patriotic Western State. Pennsylvania thrusts herself forward to receive the assassin blow aimed at her weaker sister, and shields her from intended harm. Glorious and beautiful sight! Pennsylvania locks arms with Kentucky, and defies her enemies.

Captain Brand desires a few more able-bodied men to complete his company. A better opportunity for the exhibition of patriotic devotion to our common country cannot be obtained by those who design volunteer in this great cause.

From Negley's Brigade
(Column 2)

Summary: Describes the arrival in Louisville of Colonel Stumbaugh's troops and the situation there.

Editorial Comment: "We have been permitted to make the following extracts from a letter received by the wife of an officer in Col. Stumbaugh's Regiment, now on duty in Kentucky:"