Summary:
These June, 1863, Union orders create a new military department in Pennsylvania
and call for the creation of a volunteer Army Corps of the Susquehanna to defend
Pennsylvania from Robert E. Lee's impending invasion. The orders make General
Darius Couch commander of the department with headquarters at Chambersburg. The
orders also provide regulations for the organization of the volunteer army corps
including pay, the commissioning of officers, term of service, and the
volunteers' relation to Federal forces.
Chambersburg, Pa.,
June 11, 1863.
The undersigned assumes command of this department.
In view of the danger of invasion now threatening the State of Pennsylvania by the enemies of the Government, a new military department has been made, by direction of the War Department, embracing all the territory of Pennsylvania east of Johnstown and the Laurel Hill range of mountains, headquarters at Chambersburg.
To prevent serious raids by the enemy, it is deemed necessary to call upon the citizens of Pennsylvania to furnish promptly all the men necessary to organize an army corps of volunteer infantry, artillery, and cavalry, to be designated the Army Corps of the Susquehanna. They will be enrolled and organized in accordance with the regulations of the United States service, for the protection and defense of the public and private property within this department, and will be mustered into the service of the United States, to serve during the pleasure of the President or the continuance of the war.
The company and field officers of the Departmental Corps will be provisionally commissioned by the President, upon the recommendation of the general commanding.
They will be armed, uniformed, equipped, and, while in active service, subsisted and supplied as other troops of the United States.
When not required for active service to defend the department, they will be returned to their homes, subject to the call of the commanding general.
Cavalry volunteers may furnish their own horses, to be turned over to the United States at their appraised value, or allowance will be made for the time of actual service at the rate authorized by law.
All able-bodied volunteers between the ages of eighteen and sixty will be enrolled and received into this corps.
The volunteers for State defense will receive no bounty, but will be paid the same as for like service in the Army of the United States for the time they may be in actual service, as soon as Congress may make an appropriation for that purpose.
If volunteers belonging to this army corps desire, they can be transferred to the volunteer service for three years, or during the war, when they will be entitled to all the bounties and privileges granted by the acts of Congress.
The general commanding, in accordance with the foregoing general authority, calls upon all citizens within this department to come forward promptly, to perfect company organizations under United States regulations, to wit: 1 captain, 1 first lieutenant, 1 second lieutenant, 64 privates as a minimum and 82 as a maximum standard of each company.
The general commanding especially desires that citizens of this district recently in the army should volunteer for duty in this army corps, thereby from their experience adding greatly to the efficiency of the force for immediate defensive operations.
Each company organization to be perfected as soon as possible, and report the name of officer in command, the number of men, and the place of its headquarters, in order that they may be promptly furnished with transportation to the general rendezvous, which will be at Harrisburg.
Any person who will furnish 40 or more men who will be enrolled, if otherwise unobjectionable, will be entitled to a captaincy; any person who will bring 25 or more men, under above condition, will be entitled to a lieutenancy, and any person who will bring 15 or more men, under same conditions, to a second lieutenancy.
On arriving at the place of rendezvous, they will be formed into regiments so far as practicable, and as may be found consistent with the interests of the public service. Companies from the same locality will be put together in regimental organizations.
For the present, all communications will be addressed to Harrisburg. Chiefs of the respective departments will report accordingly.
D. N. COUCH,
Maj.-Gen., Comdg.
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 68-69, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
