The President's address to the army.
President Davis, in consideration of the recent triumphs to our arms, has issued the following address to the officers and men who participated in the series of sanguinary battles:To the army in Eastern a Virginia:
Richmond July 5th, 1862.
Soldiers:
--I congratulate you on the series of brilliant victories which, under the favor of Divine Providence, you have lately won, and as the President of the Confederate States, do heartily tender to you the thanks of the country, whose just cause you have so skillfully and heroically served.
Ten days ago, an invading army, vastly superior to you in numbers and in the material of war, closely beleaguered your Capital and vauntingly proclaimed its speedy conquest; you marched to attack the enemy in his entrenchments; with well directed movements and death-defying valor, you charged upon him in his strong positions, drove him from field to field over a distance of more than thirty-five miles, and, despite his reinforcements, compelled him to seek safety under the cover of his gunboats, where he now lies cowering before the army so lately derided and threatened with entire subjugation.
The fortitude with which you have borne toil and privation, the gallantry with which you have entered into each successive battle, must have been witnessed to be fully appreciated; but a grateful people will not fail to recognize you and to bear you in loved remembrance.
Well may it be said of you, that you have ‘"done enough for glory;"’ but duty to a suffering country and to the cause of constitutional liberty, claims from you yet further effort.
Let it be your pride to relax in nothing which can promote your future efficiency; your one great object being to drive the invader from your soil, and, carrying your standards beyond the outer boundaries of the Confederacy, to wring from an unscrupulous foe the recognition of your birthright, community, independence. Soldiers:
[Signed,] Jefferson Davis.
