The burning of Chambersburg, 1864: a ransom nobody could pay

On the morning of July 30, 1864, Confederate cavalry rode into Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, demanded a ransom the town could not possibly pay, and, when it did not come, burned the place. More than 550 buildings were destroyed and about 2,000 people made homeless. It was revenge for the Union's burning of homes in the Shenandoah Valley — and it helped persuade Ulysses S. Grant to burn the Valley in earnest.

"Chambersburg… destroyed by the rebels", an 1864 stereograph. Library of Congress.

Why Chambersburg

By summer 1864 the war in northern Virginia had turned brutal, with burnings and hangings on both sides.

Early said it was pure payback for Hunter, and took the blame himself: "for this act I, alone, am responsible."

The raid

1. July 28–29. Brig. Gen. John "Tiger John" McCausland's brigade, joined by Brig. Gen. Bradley Johnson's, crosses the Potomac west of Williamsport, Maryland — nearly 3,000 horsemen — while Early stages diversions along the river.
2. The defender goes astray. Union Brig. Gen. William Averell, responsible for the area, cannot cover it all, loses contact with his river posts, and falls back to Greencastle, nine miles off, to protect the town — then rests his men.
3. 3 a.m., July 30. The Confederates ride through the night, chase off a small Union guard and shell the town from a mile west. Hearing the guns, Averell rides out — then, told Confederates are heading east, swings toward Baltimore after what turns out to be a small patrol.
4. 5 a.m. About 500 riders enter the town. Officials have fled with the town's money. McCausland gives the residents six hours.
5. Looting. While they wait, discipline collapses; soldiers roam the streets demanding whiskey and "greenbacks". Johnson later described drunken men "pillaging, plundering" in every kind of disguise.
6. The burning. With no money and Averell reported four miles away, McCausland orders the town fired and the courthouse blown up. Some refuse: Col. William Peters of the 21st Virginia says there are only defenceless women and children in the town, and some soldiers help put fires out.

A cavalryman of the 14th Virginia remembered columns of black smoke reaching the sky, whirlwinds lifting clothing into the air amid the shrieks of women and children, and cows, dogs and cats burned alive.

The cost

• more than 550 buildings destroyed
• about 2,000 people homeless
• damage later put at more than $1.6 million
• at least three Confederate soldiers killed by vengeful townspeople

The Union commander of the Department of the Susquehanna wrote of the raiders' "inhuman and savage ferocity". The New York Times blamed the open "back door" of the Shenandoah Valley.

The ride home

McCausland left around noon and camped 21 miles west near McConnellsburg, which bought its safety with food. At Hancock, Maryland, he demanded $30,000 and 5,000 rations; Marylanders in his own force, Johnson among them, talked him out of burning it, and approaching Union cavalry did the rest. Averell followed, slowly. Turned away from Cumberland by Union guns, the Confederates reached the Potomac at Oldtown, where some 400 Ohio troops, a blockhouse and an armoured train held the crossing. Their artillery destroyed the train, and the last of the defenders — Colonel Stough and about 80 men — surrendered.

What it achieved

For the Confederacy, little beyond worn-out men and horses. In the North it bred fury and calls for revenge — and it was a key reason Grant adopted a strategy of destroying the Confederate armies and burning their sources of food and supplies, starting with the Shenandoah Valley.

Sources

Written from "Burning of Chambersburg", National Park Service, Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park, part of the series Great Alarm at the Capital, a work of the United States government in the public domain.