Summary:
Union General Darius Couch writes General in Chief Henry Halleck on July 31, 1864, to discuss the military situation in Pennsylvania during Confederate General Jubal Early's raid north of the Potomac. Couch mentions that he is distributing rations to the citizens of Chambersburg left destitute by the burning of the town.

---

Hon. SECRETARY OF WAR and
Maj.-Gen. HALLECK:

HARRISBURG, PA.,

July 31, 1864

Gen. Averell has turned the enemy from McConnellsburg, 2,600 strong, to the direction of Hancock, and is pursuing them. Gen. Kelley reports all right at Cumberland and vicinity. I leave at 2 p. m. for Pittsburg, and it is found true that Breckinridge is advancing toward Wheeling or Pittsburg, the Governor will give me 15,000 men, and I can assemble nineteen pieces of artillery, seven being 20-pounders, rifled. No enemy at Emmitsburg at last accounts. I am distributing several thousand rations to the destitute of Chambersburg.

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 37, Serial No. 71, Pages 541, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.