Summary:
In this June, 1863, address, Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin calls on the
people of Pennsylvania to raise militia for the defense of the state against
Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Curtin expresses his frustration with
the people's haggling over terms of service, asks them to trust the government,
close down their businesses, and join the militia. He points out that the
situation is particularly urgent with Confederate forces six mile outside
Chambersburg and threatening the state capital at Harrisburg.
Harrisburg,
June 16, 1863.
_____ _____:
For nearly a week past it has been publicly known that the rebels, in force, were about to enter Pennsylvania.
On the 12th instant, an urgent call was made on the people to raise a Departmental Army Corps for the defense of the State. Yesterday, under the proclamation of the President, the militia was called out. To-day a new and pressing exhortation has been given to furnish men.
Philadelphia has not responded. Meanwhile the enemy is 6 miles this side of Chambersburg, and advancing rapidly. Our capital is threatened, and we may be disgraced by its fall, while the men who should be driving these outlaws from our soil are quarreling about the possible term of service for six months. It never was intended to keep them beyond the continuance of the emergency. You all know this by what happened when the militia was called out last autumn. You then trusted your Government, and were not deceived. Trust it again now. I will accept men without reference to the six months. If you do not wish to bear the ignominy of shrinking from the defense of your State, come forward at once, close your places of business, and apply your heads to the work. Come in such organizations as you can form. Gen. Couch has appointed Lieut.-Col. Ruff to superintend your organization. Report to him immediately.
A. G. CURTIN.
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 169, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
