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This item is currently being transcribed by a volunteer. We look forward to making the full-text of the document available soon THE SENTINEL __________________________________ “Let all who made thou Alm’s as no thy [?] thy God’s, and [?]” __________________________________ WEDNESDAY MORNING, FEBR’ARY 10, 1864. ____________________________________ ____________________________________

        ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT TO 
                         THE ARMY
                          _________
       ADJ’T AND INSP’R GEN’S OFFICE
                       Richmond, VA, Feb. 10, 1864.

GENERAL ORDERS No 19.

   The following address of the President is pub-

lished for the information of the army.

          By order:
    (Signed)                                  S. COOPER
                             Adj’t and Inspector General.
                                ___

Soldiers of the Armies of the Confederate

             States! 
  In the long and bloody war in which you

country is engaged, you have achieved many noble triumphs. You have won glorious victo- ries over vastly more numerous hosts. You have cheerfully borne privations and toil to which you were unused. You have readily sub- mitted to restraints upon your individual will that the citizen might better perform his duty to the State as a soldier. To all these you have lastly added another triumph, the noblest of human conquests – a victor over yourselves.

  As the time drew near when you who first en-

tered the service might well have been expected to claim relief from your arduous labors and restoration to the endearments of home, you have heeded only the call of your suffering country. Again you come to tender your ser- vice for the public defence – a free offering which only such patriotism as yours could make - a triumph worthy of you and the cause to which you are devoted.

    I would in vain attempt adequately to express

the [?] with which I received the testimo- nials of confidence and regard which you have recently addressed to me. To some of those first received, separate acknowledgments were re- turned. But it is now apparent that a [?] [?]- [?] enthusiasm pervades the whole [?] and that the only exception to such magnanimous tender will be of those who, having originally entered for the war, cannot display anew their [?] in the public service. It is therefore, deemed appropriate, and, it is hoped, will be equaly ac- ceptable, to make a general acknowledgment, in- stead of successive special responses. Would that it were possible to render my thanks to you in person, and in the name of our common coun- try, as well as in my own, while pressing the hand of each war worn veteran, to recognize his title to our love, gratitude and admiration.

  Soldiers! By your will (for you and the people

are but one) I have been placed in a position which debars me from sharing your dangers, your sufferings and your provisions in the fold. With pride and [?] my heart has accom- pied you in every march, with [?] it [?] it has marked your every heroic achievement. Yet, never in the toilsome march nor in the weary watch, nor in the desperate as- sault, have you rendered a service so decisive in results as in this last display of the highest qualities of devotion and self-sacrifice which can adorn the character of the warrior patriot

  Already the pulse of the whole people beats 

in unison with yours. Already the compare your spontaneous and unanimous offer of your lives, for the defence of your country, with the halting and reluctant service of the mercenaries who are purchased by the enemy at the price of higher bounties than have hitherto been known in war. Animated by this contrast, they exhibit cheerful confidence and more resolute bearing. Even the murmurs of the weak and timid, who shrink from the trials which make stronger and firmer your noble natures, are shamed into with the awe which is due to a sublime mag- namoity. Men of such nobility of soul cannot be conquered. The [?] which gives [?] to such heroes is not long to be trodden by mercenaries. The aire which they breathe are not doomed to be polluted by the pres- ence of their oppressors. This new exhi- bition of virtue gives new life to our spirits, and new energies to our efforts, and it will invoke Heaven’s favor on our standards and our cause. Well might the President say, “never, on the toilsome march, nor on the weary watch, nor in the desperate assault, have [our soldiers] rendered a service so decisive in results, as in this last display of the highest qualities of devotion and self- sacrifice which can adorn the character of the warrior-patriot” And no wonder that under the enthusiasm of so noble and inspi- ing a theme, the President has given us in his address, perhaps the most beautiful and eloquent production of his accomplished pen.

[2] [?] by the spectacle which you present =- Your brave battle-cry will ring loud and clear through the land of the enemy, as well as our own; will silence the vain-glorious boastings of their corrupt partisans and their pensioned [?]; and will do justice to the [?] by which they seek to persuade a deluded people that you are ready to purchase dishonorable safety by degrading submission.

   Soldiers! The coming spring campaign will

open under auspices well calculated to sustain our hopes. Your resolution needed nothing to fortify it. With ranks replenished under the influence of your example, and by the aid of your representatives, who give earnest of their purpose to add, by legislation, largely to your strength, you may welcome the invader with a confidence justified by the memory of past vic- tories. On the other hand, debt, taxation, re- petition of heavy drafts, dissensions, occasion- ed by the strife for power, by the pursuit of the spoils of office, by the thirst for the plunder of the public treasury, and , above all, the con- ciousness of a bad cause, must tell with fear- ful force upon the over-strained energies of the enemy. His campaign in 1964 must, from the exhaustion of his resources both in men and money, be far less formidable than those of the last two years, when unimpaired means were used with boundless prodigality, and with re- sults which are suggested by the mention of the glorious names of Shiloh and Perrysville, and Murfreesboro’ and chickamanga, and the Chicka- hominey, and Manassas, and Fredericksburg and Chancelorsville.

  Soldiers! Assured success awaits us in our 

holy struggle for liberty and independence, and for the preservation of all that renders life de- sirable to honorable men. When that success shall be reached, to you, your country’s hope and pride, under Divine Providence, will it be due. The fruits of that success will not be reaped by you alone, but your children and you children’s children in long generations to come will enjoy blessings derived from your that will preserve you memory ever-living in their hearts

  Citizen-defenders of the homes, the liberties

and the [?] of the Confederacy! That the God whom we all humbly worship my shield you with his Fatherly care, and preserve you for safe return to the peaceful enjoyment of

your friends and the association of those you 

most love, is the earnest prayer of your Com- mander-in-Chief.

                                         JEFFERSON DAVIS
          Richmond, 9th FEB., 1864.
                              ________
  The address which appears above is a 

thrilling tribute to our soldiers from their Constitutional Commander-in-Chief. It glows with gratitude and admiration , and is eloquent with sympathy and encourage- ment. It is no common glory to have won such transcendent praise as the President so feelingly bestows on our glorious war-worn heroes! And the whole country, with one voice and with affectionate pride, pronounces it only their just due!

  Indeed, history may be searched in vain

for a complete parallel to the patriots enthu0 siasm and the gallant spirit which this day animates all our camps. The contrast which the President suggests between the conduct of our patriot soldiers and the Northern mer- cenaries, is like the comparison of noon and midnight. But the fame of even our revolu0 tionary ancestors will pale before the supe- rior lustre of that of their sons. Neither in the struggle of 1776, nor in any other, has the world ever before seen men whose hearts and tastes were all for peace, yet who, after enduring for three years the hardships and perils of war, and in the midst of priva- tions of both of food and clothing, have come forward with a shout, and re-enlisted to a man, without any other [?] then the love of their country, and of true glory!- Posterity will read the records of this hour.