Summary:
In this November, 1863, dispatch, Union General Darius Couch, commanding the
Department of the Susquehanna at Chambersburg, reports to Assistant Adjutant
Edward D. Townsend on draft disturbances in the anthracite coal region of
Pennsylvania.
Col. E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-Gen.,
Washington, D. C.:
Chambersburg, Pa.,
November 13, 1863.
SIR:
I have the honor to inform you, for the information of the War Department, that I have just returned from the disaffected mining region of Hazelton and vicinity, having during the visit met and conversed with several of the coal operators and others interested in the affairs of that region.
Some of the collieries were stopped last week for the avowed purpose of compelling the Gen. Government to relieve the mining regions from the operations of the draft. However, the prompt arrival of troops, ordered by Maj.-Gen. Sigel, resorted matters to their previous status. The mines are in operation, but the loyal people there live in a state of terror, several brutal murders having been committed within a few weeks.
The operators whom I saw proposed this, that if they could be assured of the protection of the Gen. Government until the work was accomplished, they would discharge the bad characters and employ new men, having eventually a body of men that could be controlled. It is supposed that it would take three months to carry out these desired reforms. If commenced, the troops must not be withdrawn until the work is thoroughly done, otherwise two-thirds of the anthracite region would stop sending coal to market.
I respectfully urge upon the Department to consider the propositions, and recommend that I be instructed to give the guaranties asked for by the operators and proceed to the work with the troops under my command.
I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
D. N. COUCH,
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 29, Serial No. 49, Pages 451, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
