DANVILLE, VA., April
4, 1865.
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA:
The general-in-chief of our army has found it necessary to
make such movements of the troops as to uncover the capital and thus involve
the withdrawal of the Government from the city of Richmond.
It would be unwise, even were it possible, to conceal the
great moral as well as material injury to our cause that must result from the
occupation of Richmond by the enemy. It is equally unwise and unworthy of us,
as patriots engaged in a most sacred cause, to allow our energies to falter,
our spirits to grow faint, or our efforts to become relaxed under reverses,
however calamitous. While it has been to us a source of national pride that for
four years of unequaled warfare we have been able, in close proximity to the
center of the enemy's power, to maintain the seat of our chosen government free
from the pollution of his presence; while the memories of the heroic dead who
have freely given their lives to its defense must ever remain enshrined in our
hearts; while the preservation of the capital, which is usually regarded as the
evidence to mankind of separate national existence, was an object very dear to
us, it is also true, and should not be forgotten, that the loss which we have
suffered is not without compensation. For many months the largest and finest
army of the Confederacy, under the command of a leader whose presence inspires
equal confidence in the troops and the people, has been greatly trammeled by
the necessity of keeping constant watch over the approaches to the capital, and
has thus been forced to forego more than one opportunity for promising
enterprise. The hopes and confidence of the enemy have been constantly excited
by the belief that their possession of Richmond would be the signal for our
submission to their rule, and relieve them from the burden of war, as their
failing resources admonish them must be abandoned if not speedily brought to a
successful close. It is for us, my countrymen, to show by our bearing under
reverses how wretched has been the self-deception of those who have believed us
less able to endure misfortune with fortitude than to encounter danger with
courage. We have now entered upon a new phase of a struggle, the memory of
which is to endure for all ages and to shed an increasing luster upon our
country.
Relieved from the necessity of guarding cities and
particular points, important but not vital to our defense, with an army free to
move from point to point and strike in detail the detachments and garrisons of
the enemy, operating on the interior of our own country, where supplies are
more accessible, and where the foe will be far removed from his own base and
cut off from all succor in case of reverse, nothing is now needed to render our
triumph certain but the exhibition of our own unquenchable resolve. Let us but
will it, and we are free; and who, in the light of the past, dare doubt your
purpose in the future?
Animated by the confidence in your spirit and fortitude,
which never yet has faded me, I announce to you, fellow-countrymen, that it is
my purpose to maintain your cause with my whole heart and soul; that I will
never consent to abandon to the enemy one foot of the soil of any one of the
States of the Confederacy; that Virginia, noble State, whose ancient renown has
been eclipsed by her still more glorious recent history; whose bosom has been
bared to receive the main shock of this war; whose sons and daughters have
exhibited heroism so sublime as to render her illustrious in all times to come;
that Virginia with the help of her people, and by the blessing of Providence,
shall be held and defended, and no peace ever be made with the infamous
invaders of her homes by the sacrifice of any of her rights or territory. If by
stress of numbers we should ever be compelled to a temporary withdrawal from
her limits, or those of any other border State, again and again will we return,
until the baffled and exhausted enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and
impossible task of making slaves of a people resolved to be free.
Let us not, then, despond, my countrymen, but relying on the
never-failing mercies and protecting care of our God, let us meet the foe with
fresh defiance, with unconquered and unconquerable hearts.
JEFF'N DAVIS.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 1382-3
