After the reverses to our arms at the disastrous battles of the Second
Bull Run and Centreville, in the latter part of August, 1862, and the
retrograde movements of the Union forces in Virginia in consequence,
the purpose of the enemy to follow up his advantage by endeavoring to
take the Capital, invade the Middle States, and thus strike terror
into the hearts of the people of the North, became immediately
apparent. In the early part of September, war meetings were being held
in Pennsylvania to raise the quota of the State in lieu of the draft
then impending, in pursuance of the requisition of the President of
the United States for three hundred thousand men. The Reserves had
been called away to succor the hard-pressed army of McClellan, and the
borders were left wholly unprotected at the inviting season of
harvest. As a measure of precaution against the impending danger,
Governor Curtin on the 4th of September issued a proclamation
recommending the immediate formation of volunteer companies
throughout the State, in conformity with existing militia laws, for
home defence, and suggesting the closing of all places of business at
3 o'clock P.M. daily, in order to afford due opportunity for drill and
preparation. On the next day, Mayor David McKnight of Reading, who was
acting in that capacity in the place of Mayor Joel B. Wanner, then in
the field as Major of the 128th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers,
also issued a manifesto, in pursuance of the spirit of the Governor's
proclamation, requiring the assemblage of the citizens at certain
places designated within their respective wards, for the organization
of companies, and also the holding of daily drills from 4 to 6 P.M.

On the 5th, the rebel army under General Lee, comprising a force
estimated at eighty thousand infantry, eight thousand cavalry, and one
hundred and fifty pieces of artillery, crossed the Potomac at or near
the Point of Rocks, and entered Frederick. Among its division
commanders were Magruder, Walker, Anderson, A.P. Hill, Stuart,
Longstreet, Ewell, and Stonewall Jackson. With the occupation of
Maryland, matters reached an alarming crisis, and the imminent danger
to Pennsylvania became at once evident. The boldness and celerity of
the enemy's movements suggested the necessity for prompt action on the
part of the State authorities. On the 10th of September, the
Governor, acting under the direction of the President of the United
States, issued another