A West Point graduate who joined the Confederate army in 1861 and fought in the Seven Days’ Battles, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, Major General Lafayette McLaws commanded one of the three divisions in the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Lieutenant General James Longstreet. When McLaws wrote to his wife on June 28, Longstreet’s and A. P. Hill’s corps were camped around Chambersburg, while the Second Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Richard Ewell, was divided between Carlisle and York. After learning on the night of June 28 that the Army of the Potomac had left northern Virginia and reached Frederick, Maryland, Lee issued orders for his army to reunite at either Cashtown, seventeen miles east of Chambersburg, or at Gettysburg, another eight miles farther to the east.
Head Quarters Division
June 28’/63
Camp near Chambersburg, Pa
My Dear Emily
My command arrived at this place, this morning at 10 oclock, and joined the rest of the Corps camped near this place.
We left Martinsburg in Virginia on the 26th at five oclock in the morning, and fording the river, camped three Brigades near Wmsport and one brigade with my artillery near Hagerstown. I camped in an open lot in the town. The ford at Wmsport is a very good one the men crossing without difficulty. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal which runs along the river bank on the north side, was dry, the aquaduct having been blown up. The track of the Baltimore and Ohio Canal running along the canal was also destroyed—from Martinsburg to the river, eleven miles, the houses were all closed, the curtains drawn and the people either absent or invisible—showing an evident dislike to our cause. It was remarked as we went into Martinsburg that the magnificent farm of the Honl. Charles J Faulkner who was the Adjutant General of General Jackson was in a beautiful state of cultivation, not a stone of his fences injured and the laborers at work with their teams, collecting the clover which has been cut and cured. While on the other side of the road, the fences were down, the crops destroyed, the grounds trampled and everything wearing the appearance of places which had long ago been deserted and devastated. The secret was out, when we visited the town and was told that Mrs Faulkner had not long since returned from Washington, and on the evening our troops first entered the town she had issued tickets for a large party to be given to the Yankee officers. Her daughters were also constantly visiting the Yankee families and were being visited by them and the Yankee officers generally, and that the greatest cordiality existed between them.
The farms we saw lying in waste were those of southern families who were not so devoted to Yankeedom. There was no welcome given us in Martinsburg, except by a very few and those of the ladies who exhibited any cordiality I noticed were clothed in silks, and de lames & muslins, and all the finery of a thriving Yankee town. Many women & children made faces at us as we marched along, and although we could not hear them, we could see their mouths moving, and from their expressions knew they were giving us their maledictions. As we crossed into Williamsport, the people were more friendly but yet all the shops were closed and the houses generally deserted or exhibiting no signs of being inhabited. One lady said she was delighted to see us. Shook hands very cordially. Said she expected to be sent over the river if the enemy should ever return but did not care. Shortly after I went to the window to get some water and seeing a boy of nine or ten in the room with the blue blouse of a Yankee. I Said “You are a Yankee Sir”; the boy said nothing but held down his head. The young lady before mentioned said to him “Speak up buddy and tell him you are no Yankee.” “Yes but I am one” asserted the boy. And I remarked “Children take their opinions from their older sisters and brothers & they always tell the truth” and rode away. The family within looking as if they had been caught in a falsehood.
I camped three Brigades near Wmsport and one near Hagerstown with four batteries and camped in the town myself (Hagerstown) where a good many persons called to see me and I was invited to supper and breakfast. I went to supper and had nothing better than I usually have at home; in camp, did not mention the breakfast. Was introduced to Mr Roman formerly Member of Congress from Maryland, and went to his house for a few minutes. Found him a very polished gentleman, and his wife and niece good specimens of southern ladies. I was very glad to meet them as I thus had in my mind to contrast between the southern gentleman and ladies and the very different species I soon encountered. As I crossed the line into Pennsylvania. At Green Castle on the road to Chambersburg. Several young ladies were assembled engaged in scoffing at our men as they passed, but they were treated with contempt or derision. I heard of nothing witty said by any of them. It was made evident however that they were not ladies in the southern acceptations of the word. The men I spoke to acknowledged that the brutalities practiced by their troops, upon the southern people, fully justified our retaliating and were surprised at our moderation—the poorer classes told me that our troops behaved better to them than their own did. Arrived at & marched through Chambersburg on 28th, a town of five thousand inhabitants perhaps more. And camped two miles east of it on the Harrisburg Road. Then arrived in camp on the 29th & destroyed about four miles of the rail road leading then to Harrisburg. The people of Chambersburg are decidedly. The men dare not show it but by their looks, the women tried to be sarcastic on various occasions but succeeded in being vulgar only. They are a very different race from the southern. There is a coarsness in their manners and looks and a twang in their voices—which grates harshly on the senses of our men; the distinction of class, the poor & sick is very marked. Every one speaks for peace at any price, and since war has been brought to their own homes, they look desponding to the last degree, and begin to believe that they have been vastly deceived by engaging in it—I have found no one to speak of Lincoln as a man of either capacity or patriotism, every one even the women think he is under abolition influence entirely, and they assert boldly that freedom should not be the lot of the negro. To day I moved camp seven miles on the Gettysburg Road, to Greenwood a small village, sending one brigade two miles on to Caledonia, where Thadeus Stevens, the abolition Member of Congress from Penna who introduced the bill for the employment of negro troops, had large iron works. They were burned by our troops however, and are now in ashes & total ruin—
My division mail rider was caught by the enemy, in Hagerstown on his way here with letters.
When you write, therefore you must be cautious and particular. This may be captured also & I am particularly cautious as you may observe.
You may send this letter to WmR to be returned to you.
Give much love to the children, and ask them to write me, also to sister Laura & Bet. —Good night and much love from your devoted husband L.