Letter from Herman Johnson to Andrew Curtin

Dickinson College President Herman Johnson writes to Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin (Class of 1837) and requests the release of Dickinson College students from military service so that they could return to Carlisle and continue their studies. At the height of the threat of a Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania during General Robert E. Lee's 1862 Maryland Campaign, Johnson notes that Dickinson students had "joined the military companies from [Carlisle] and have gone with them to the border." With the threat of an invasion no longer present, Johnson asks Governor Curtin release the students to prevent the college from closing. "The Faculty are of opinion that the emergency does not demand the breaking up of the College," as Johnson explains.