July 3, 1863, Richmond Enquirer
General Le’s army has occupied, without resistance, the flourishing town of York, the centre and capital of a great county which is the garden of Pennsylvania; situated on the railroad on which Baltimore depends for its supplies, and within fifty miles of that city, almost due North. The intelligence of the capture of Harrisburg is not confirmed; and was at least premature.
The plans of Lee are still a secret to our enemies, as well as to ourselves; whether he means to strike for Philadelphia, or for Baltimore, and in either case to cut off the railroad communication of Washington with the North, as he has already with the West; whether his intention be to establish himself quietly in the richest part of the Keystone State, and make its fertile valleys support his army, until he can force Hooker to a battle, perhaps in front of the fortifications of Washington; all this remains matter of conjecture for the present. One thing, however, is plain — General Lee movements are directed not to indiscriminate plunder and devastation, but to the winning of victory; and victory, will leave all Maryland and the best part of Pennsylvania absolutely in his power, to levy regular contributions upon the country — to burn or to ransom the towns and cities at his pleasure — to free Maryland and Baltimore and to strike a blow right at the enemy’s head in Washington.
It is true the enemy’s country deserves no consideration at our hands, to leave it all one waste like the Stony Arabia, would be only fitting retribution; but the natural desire to bring home to the foe some portion of that desolation which he has visited upon us, must, for the present, give way to the necessities of strategy. In the meantime, our good Confederate boys are living like the sons of kings. We wish them a very good appetite, and only apprehend that they will not wish to come back to us at all. They will want to settle in that land flowing with milk and honey, where our rose colored notes will buy six times as much as they will do at home, and where men use sugar with their coffee, and coffee with their sugar. The country people of Pennsylvania, it seems, are tolerably indifferent to all this. They are not rushing to arms, as was expected; but wait for New York troops; and, indeed, seem not too solicitous for the arrival of those saviours. — They want no more than good prices for their produce, and are wisely content with Confederate money, which, indeed, is too good for them, being quite good enough for much better men. This lavish expenditure of Southern money in Pennsylvania also will have two good effects; it will help to deplete our currency within the limits of the Confederacy; and it will give to some of the Pennsylvanians a positive interest in sustaining Confederate credit. They cannot do a better thing for their own interest than to suffer our troops to occupy all their towns, as they have occupied York, resistance.”