Summary:
Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin writes General Darius Couch, commanding the Department of the Susquehanna at Chambersburg in August, 1863. Curtin expresses his reluctance to use militia to enforce the draft.

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Maj.-Gen. COUCH:

HARRISBURG, PA.,

August 2, 1863.

I do not believe you can hold the militia, and the Government should provide troops, or ask me to enlist militia for the purpose of enforcing the draft. I am sustaining a pressure which is unfair, and no explanation I can make now will satisfy the men. If I had known the regiments were required, I might have induced them to go. Besides, I have no money to pay them for their services. As the authorities in Washington will not communicate with me, will you not immediately present the subject for their consideration?

A. G. CURTIN.

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Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 3, Volume 3, Serial No. 124, Pages 657, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.