2pp. and 3pp., 8vo (222 x 203 mm; 260 x 203 mm), old folds, minor toning.

AN APPEAL FOR AID FOR VICTIMS OF THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA BY CONFEDERATE FORCES ON 30 JULY 1864.

In part: "On the morning of the 30th of July 1864, the rebels under the command of McCausland, with a force of about 500 men, entered Chambersburg, Pa., and demanded $500,000 from the citizens under a threat of burning the town. This requisition was in writing and was signed by Gen. Jubal Early. It is now established by indisputable proof that this demand was a mere pretext on the part of the Marauders to cover up a purpose formed before they reached the town... They fired the houses of our citizens in perhaps 50 places..."

In the early morning hours of 30 July 1864, two brigades of Confederate cavalrymen reached the outskirts of the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. At the order of General John McCausland, several shells were fired directly into the town's center, an announcement of the Confederate Army's presence which was followed by a simple demand: either produce $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in cash, or see their town burned to the ground.

With city officials having already fled town days before, the townspeople took to trying to come up with the ransom themselves, but the Confederate soldiers had already taken to looting stores and attacking civilians; Confederate Brig. Gen. Bradley Johnson would later claim, “drunken soldiers paraded the streets in every possible disguise and paraphernalia, pillaging, plundering, and drunk.” Though McCausland would later claim that he abided by the six hour deadline, witnesses later claimed that less than two hours elapsed before McCausland ordered Colonel William E. Peters to gather his men at the courthouse, arm them with torches and set the town aflame. Peters refused, "declaring that he would break his sword and throw it away before he would obey it, as there were only defenseless women and children in Chambersburg." Peters was promptly arrested for insubordination, and Chambersburg was burned to the ground.

After the war, Colonel Peters became a teacher of Latin at the University of Virginia. Upon his retirement in 1902, his wife said of him, "The event I am proudest of in the long and useful life of my husband is that of his courageous refusal to make war on helpless women and children... as a Virginian, soldier and gentleman, he preferred the imminent personal risk of a violation of the command of his superior officer, to being made individually responsible for a fate so direful overtaking the defenseless inhabitants of the doomed city."

The present document identifies John Riddle Warner, a Presbyterian minister from Gettysburg and the probable author of both, as official agent for donations. During the Battle of Gettysburg, Warner ministered to dying soldiers while his wife, Jennie, tended to the wounded. She contracted typhoid fever and died in September 1863, leaving Warner to care for their infant daughter. To raise funds for her care, Warner subsequently embarked on a lecture tour recounting his experiences at Gettysburg.