Soldiers on Furlough!
to your posts.
See General Orders, No. 16, published in another column.
It revokes, on the spot, all leaves of absence, from whatsoever quarter obtained; it orders all officers and men absent from duty, except on surgeon's certificate of disability, to return at once to their respective commands.
The Department adopts this regulation with reluctance; but we feel assured that it will be cheerfully obeyed.--The enemy is pressing us on all sides.
We want every man we can get. We cannot spare a man. Our soldiers, who have manifested so much devotion, so much self-denial, so much patriotism, will bear this new cross without a murmur.
We appeal to them in the name of all that they hold sacred — country, home, wives, children, friends, altars, and firesides — to hasten at once to the field.
They will thereby add to the already large debt of gratitude due them from their country.
They will be admired and pointed at, as men who were, when the occasion called for it, ready to sacrifice all for their country.
Posterity will hold them in veneration, and they will be recorded in history as worthy of all imitation.
Men of the
South, will you be found wanting on such an occasion!
Your former history proves that you will not. Wherever your duty calls you, there you will be. It may be hard to relinquish the pleasures of home sooner than you had expected; but your country calls, and you will not fail her. Her eyes are upon you, and great as will be your reward if you succeed, greater still will be your misfortune if you fail.
But why speak of failing.
It is a word of which you know not the meaning, when it is applied to the discharge of your duty.
To your posts, men of the
South, to your posts!
We hope every newspaper in the
South will re-publish
Orders No. 16, with suitable remarks.
Let no man plead ignorance of its existence as an excuse for absence.
