Summary:
Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin forwards a September, 1862, telegram to
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. In the telegram, Colonel A. K. McClure writes
from Chambersburg to discuss preparations to meet Lee's advance into
Maryland.
Hon. E. M. STANTON:
HARRISBURG,
September 8, 1862.
You can rely on the following dispatch, just received by me, which I repeat to you:
CHAMBERSBURG, September 7-11.30 p. m.
Governor CURTIN:
Telegraph operator at Hagerstown reports he is reliably informed that 5,000 rebel
troops are marching on Hagerstown. He was about to leave, but has agreed to stay
until he hears further. The train has been ordered away, and will be here
shortly. I am going out to post the remnant of Murphy's regiment on picket duty
on leading avenues approaching town. If any movement is to be made to defend the
valley, no time should be lost. There is not a soldier in Hagerstown, and they
have no pickets. This may magnify reports greatly, but the rebels are doubtless
advised that Hagerstown is entirely undefended, and will pretty certainly move
on it. I will return in an hour or two, and if anything important transpires
will advise you.
A. K. McCLURE.
I have other dispatches from Col. McClure, received earlier this evening, which corroborate one above repeated. He and others who have been sent there to procure information have no doubt that the rebels are in large force at and in Frederick. I suggest that the battery returned here from York, by your order, be sent forward, together with the troops we have at this point, and that an officer be sent at once to take command of the line of the State. We could at least hold the rebels in check until the forces which you have now in motion reach the Upper Potomac, which must soon become the theater of active hostilities.
A. G. CURTIN.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 19, Serial No. 28, Pages 216-217, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
