  We present a 60 ks Chandra ACIS-S observation of the thermal composite
supernova remnant 3C391. The southeast-northwest elongated morphology is
similar to that previously found in radio and X-ray studies. This observation
unveils a highly clumpy structure of the remnant. Detailed spatially resolved
spectral analysis for the small-scale features reveals that the interior gas is
generally of normal metal abundance and has approached or basically reached
ionization equilibrium. The hydrogen column density increases from southeast to
northwest. Three mechanisms, radiative rim, thermal conduction, and cloudlet
evaporation, may all play roles in the X-ray appearance of 3C391 as a "thermal
composite" remnant, but there are difficulties with each of them in explaining
some physical properties. Comparatively, the cloudlet evaporation model is
favored by the main characteristics such as the highly clumpy structure and the
uniform temperature and density distribution over most of the remnant. The
directly measured postshock temperature also implies a young age, about 4 kyr,
for the remnant. The postshock gas pressure derived from the NE and SW rims,
which harbor maser spots, is consistent with the estimate for the maser
regions. An unresolved X-ray source is observed on the northwest border and its
spectrum is best fitted by a power-law.
