RICHMOND, July 5,
1862.
To the Army of Eastern
Virginia:
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 intrenchments
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 35 miles, and, despite his re-enforcements, compelled him to seek safety
under 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 your deeds 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 carry your standards
beyond the outer boundaries of the Confederacy, to wring from an unscrupulous
foe the recognition of your birthright, community independence.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
11, Part 3 (Serial No. 14), p. 690; John William Jones, Life and
Letters of Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 179.
