Summary:
Union Cavalry Captain D. H. Hastings reports to General Lorenzo Thomas that he has placed cavalry pickets near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border at the request of Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtain. Hastings placed the pickets to help contain Robert E. Lee's September, 1862, advance into Maryland. Hastings also comments on the panic among civilians in the Chambersburg area.

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Brig. Gen. LORENZO THOMAS,
Adjutant-Gen., U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

Carlisle Barracks, Pa.,

September 12, 1862.

GEN.:

At the request of His Excellency Gov. A. G. Curtin, I have sent my permanent party, mounted, at daylight this morning, to operate in front of the rebel pickets, between Chambersburg and the Maryland line, and to give some degree of confidence to the inhabitants, as well as to prevent a panic, which was rather imminent among the more easily frightened portion of the people in that neighborhood.

I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

D. H. HASTINGS,
Capt. First Cavalry, Cmdg.

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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 278, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.