Summary:
After Robert E. Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, the Union Army of the Potomac attempted to follow up on their success and attack the Army of Northern Virginia before it retreated across the Potomac. In this dispatch of the night of July 3, 1863, Union General Darius Couch notifies Army of the Potomac commander George Meade that he is preparing to send troops to harass the enemy at Chambersburg and Greencastle.

---

Received, War Department, midnight.
Maj.-Gen. Meade,
Army of the Potomac:

Harrisburg, Pa.,

July 3, 1863

I will move 9,000 men from Carlisle after 12 o'clock to-night. We hope to strike near Cashtown. I have also ordered my men in Bedford County forward, to harass near Chambersburg and Greencastle. My cavalry have been at Fayetteville.

D. N. COUCH,
Maj.-Gen.

---

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