Address of Gen. Longstreet.
A correspondent in the First Virginia regiment sends us the following stirring address of Gen. Longstreet to the Army of the Potomac. Our correspondent says that over two-thirds of the twelve months men of the army will re-enlist, and more than that proportion of the 2d Division: Headq'rs 2d Division, A. P., Near Centreville, Feb. 8, 1862.
General Order, No. 2.
‘"The Rebel army of the Potomac will be disbanded in the spring.
Until then I will not attack it. Then, with their fresh levies against my trained and disciplined hosts, victory will be certain, success inevitable."’
Soldiers of the 2d Division! Thus the Commander-in-Chief of the Northern army proclaims the subtle policy by which the enemy hope to crush us. Upon your decision the issue depends.
The Army of the Potomac has been styled the ‘"Rebellion,"’ for with our destruction must inevitably come the unchecked Yankee horde to overrun and destroy Virginia, the Carolinas, and the entire South.
This is the only argument, the only appeal your General has to make to a proud and gallant soldiery.
With the presence of such trained and tried veterans of the Southern pioneer army, the victory is already won; with your back turned upon us and the foe, victory trembles fearfully in the balance.
The allurements of home are strong to entice the citizen soldier from the field, but the voice is a syren's, which, while it pretends to call to duty these may, aye!
will, lead us to a felon's cell, and, leave for our mothers, wives, and children a country polluted, desolated, and enslaved — a home already pictured in Northern prints, where ‘"Northern matrons preside, while Southern ladies bend over the wash tub!"’
South Carolinians!
Authors of our glorious cause; first in the field, can you, in the darkest hour, tear this, the proudest laurel, from your brow, and yield to other States the keeping of your now burnished fame?
Will you trail from the field the Palmetto banner, first in the breeze and earliest baptized by the best blood of your State?
Virginians! While your brethren-in-arms from other States are standing upon your borders, shoulder to shoulder, shall the centre of the column, the ‘"Stone Wall"’ which dashed to spray the waves of invasion, crumble in the very height and maddest fury of the storm?
Is it to be left to others to defend the mothers, wives, daughters, and homes of Virginia?
Must battles be fought on your soil and veteran Virginians not be there to strike, braver than all, for their own altars?
Soldiers! Your choice is inevitably defeat or victory; freedom or slavery.
While he will not doubt your decision, the Major General commanding appreciates the necessity which impels many to visit their homes for a season, and he pledges you that, in turn, so as not to impair too greatly the efficiency of the army, furloughs will be granted to all who feel it due to themselves to ask it. General Order, No. 2.
