Summary:
Colonel Henry H. Lockwood, commanding First Regiment, Delaware Volunteers reports
to Fitz-John Porter, Assistant Adjutant for the Department of Pennsylvania,
headquartered at Chambersburg in June, 1861. Lockwood describes guarding the
Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad and the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal,
comments on the readiness of his troops, and mentions hiring a steamer for
communications on the Susquehanna.
HDQRS. FIRST REGIMENT DELAWARE VOLUNTEERS,
Maj. FITZ J. PORTER,
A. A. G., Dep't of
Pennsylvania, Chambersburg, Pa.:
Havre de Grace, Md.,
June 18, 1861.
SIR:
I have the honor to report that this command occupies the several stations on the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad, with one company on the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal. The divided state of the command of course operates greatly against any regular system of instruction. I, however, endeavor to visit the several stations twice a week, and hope that the benefits of my instruction are not entirely lost. The company guarding the canal is divided into two equal parts, and its future efficiency thereby much disturbed. As I do not see the necessity of keeping it there, I respectfully suggest the propriety of placing it either at headquarters or at Elkton. I would likewise offer, very respectfully, the same suggestion respecting the occupation of Northeast and Charlestown. The bridges at Northeast and Charlestown are all of stone, and could not be materially injured before word would reach Perryville or Elkton. I would therefore suggest that two companies be kept at Elkton, two at Perryville, and the rest at this place and below--say two at Bush River and two at Gunpowder. This last place seems to me much more exposed than any other, and as demanding greater protection. I await you orders in these respects. I beg leave to add further that I have not felt easy without some means of constant communication with the other shore of the Susquehanna, and that I have accordingly chartered the steamer Fairy for thirty dollars per day, she finding coal.
In conclusion, I beg leave to present to the general, as the wish of the officers and men of this command (myself included), that it should be called into more active service at an early day. I would also say that the officers and men of this command have received at all hands the well-merited encomiums of all here, and at all the stations, for their genial society and good conduct. I regard the material favorable for a first-rate regiment.
I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
HENRY H. LOCKWOOD,
Col., Commanding.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 2, Serial No. 2, Pages 704-705, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
