Summary:
Union General Darius Couch writes Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in June, 1863, to inform him that a Union telegraph operator outside Chambersburg reported that a man on horseback claimed that Confederate troops entered the town.

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Hon. E. M. Stanton:

Harrisburg,

June 16, 1863

Your dispatch received, &c. My last dispatch, about 10 last evening, from the operator a few miles this side of Chambersburg, stated that a gentleman who was to notify him of the enemy's arrival rode to the office, and said that several mounted men had just come in, saying they were Southern soldiers. This was two hours after Lieut. Charles W. Palmer, who had a small force of Maryland cavalry, came in from Greencastle with his column, reporting the rebels near. One company of cavalry recruits was sent out last night from Carlisle in the direction of Chambersburg. Nothing heard from them as yet. Our measures have been taken to get correct reports. Capt. Boyd, First New York Cavalry, is in this section.

D. N. COUCH,
Maj.-Gen.

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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 27, Serial No. 45, Pages 161, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.