Summary:
Union General Darius Couch reports to General George Meade on efforts to harass
Lee's retreat from Gettysburg in this July, 1863, dispatch. Couch mentions
orders to strike at Chambersburg.
Copy received, War Department, 8 p. m.
Gen. George
G. Meade:
Harrisburg, Pa.,
July 6, 1863.
Gen. Smith, on the 4th and 5th, received your order to join him. At 1 a. m. to-day I directed him to obey your orders, unless he found the enemy in retreat and could operate effectually where he had been ordered to strike--at Cashtown or Chambersburg. He should have nearly 10,000 men, but one-half are very worthless, and 2,000 cavalry, with a battery, can capture the whole party in an open country. This is why I put them in or near the mountains; there they could do service.
I have 2,000 men here; 500 that ran so rapidly from Gettysburg, much demoralized, and one regiment New York troops that won't march; 3,000 men nearly equipped, and probably 5,000 at Reading are being equipped. Between Bedford and Milroy's men (Mercersburg) there may be 4,000, 1,500 of when are reported by the commander as utterly worthless. I have about 1,000 men that I did not march, having been demoralized at York. Have six guns and six mountain howitzers in the field. In a day or two will have ten.
I shall strictly carry out any order you may give, having been notified by the War Department to that effect days ago, and do it with pleasure. My dispositions have been made in reference to the character of my troops, topography of the country, and to assist your heroic army.
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 577-578, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
