During the night the business houses were ransacked and the office and shops of the Cumberland Valley Railroad and the office of the Western Union Telegraph Company demolished.
The next morning their attention was turned to the attack on the military stores in the large brick warehouse of Messrs. Wunderlich & Nead, in the northern section of the town. These stores consisted of ammunition, shells, signal rockets and small arms, which only a short time previous had been captured from General Longstreet, and sufficient new equipment added for two full companies of cavalry, then being mustered in Franklin County.
Soon as every article of value to an army had been removed, the torch was applied to the building, and when the flames reached the powder an explosion took place which completed the entire destruction of the property. The rebels then beat a hasty retreat toward the Southland, leaving the inhabitants of Chambersburg in a terrified condition.
The following summer found the star of secession at its greatest height. Lee’s army was never in better spirits and every soldier looked with covetous eyes on the rich fields of Pennsylvania.
Lee succumbed to the temptation, and in the face of his better judgment, planned his northern campaign, and by a military movement, seldom equaled, marched his entire army across the border line of Pennsylvania, only to meet his Waterloo at Gettysburg. The approach of this great invading horde caused a mighty panic which shook with fear the very capital city of the old Keystone State, and every town and hamlet felt the alarm.
The fight at Winchester on June 13, 1863, forced the retreat of General Milroy, who stood alone as a barrier to Lee’s advance. On the following day General Couch removed his headquarters from Chambersburg to Carlisle.
About 9 o’clock on the morning of the 15th the advance of Milroy’s retreating wagon train dashed into Chambersburg, closely pursued by the rebels.
At the same moment General Jenkins with 1800 mounted rebel infantry rode into Greencastle. After a reconnoissance the town was occupied by the rebel horde and divested of everything movable, contraband and otherwise.
The rebels then pushed on toward Chambersburg, where they reached the outskirts about 11 o’clock that night.
Again the streets of Chambersburg resounded with the clatter of cavalry, and a second time the town fell their easy prey.