Summary:
Union General Darius Couch, commanding the Department of the Susquehanna from
Chambersburg, writes to the Adjutant General of the Army in July, 1864,
concerning troop requisitions. Couch claims he cannot spare any men, discusses
the reluctance of Pennsylvania men to volunteer for service, and outlines
problems enforcing the draft in the anthracite coal region.
ADJUTANT-GEN. U. S. ARMY,
Washington, D. C.:
Chambersburg, Pa.,
July 26, 1864.
SIR:
Requisitions are being made upon me for troops to serve with district provost-marshals. I have the honor to state that it is impossible for me to furnish any for that purpose. The 100-days' men (infantry) are under orders for Baltimore, and no more volunteers are presenting themselves. I do not ask the War Department to send a man, if they will authorize me to raise troops for provost duty (100-days' men), and this is stated only from my knowledge of the general apathy in this State and the disinclination of men to volunteer, unless the bounty is sufficiently large to overcome their present aversion. You may not be aware that some of my men were fired upon recently in Pike County, and that the opposition leaders have stated in council that no draft shall take place in the anthracite region, and that the professedly loyal people of another county say that no draft shall be enforced there until deserters of the last one are arrested. I wish, therefore, to impress upon the War Department that in order to have the draft executed vigorously and without bloodshed there must be more military force in this department.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
D. N. COUCH,
Maj.-Gen., Cmdg. Department.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 37, Serial No. 71, Pages 462-463, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
