Page:A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence, 1861-1865, Volume I.djvu/444

414  By the President: Secretary of State.

 ADDRESS. General Orders No. 19.

February 10, 1864. The following address of the President is published for the information of the Army:

Soldiers of the Armies of the Confederate States. In the long and bloody war in which your country is engaged you have achieved many noble triumphs. You have won glorious victories over vastly more numerous hosts. You have cheerfully borne privations and toil to which you were unused. You have readily submitted to restraints upon your individual will that the citizen might better perform his duty to the State as a soldier. To all these you have lately added another triumph — the noblest of human conquests — a victory over yourselves.

As the time drew near when you who first entered the service might well have been expected to claim relief from your arduous labors and restoration to the endearments of home you have heeded only the call of your suffering country. Again you come to tender your service for the public defense — a free offering, which only such patriotism as yours could make — a triumph worthy of you and of the cause to which you are devoted.

I would in vain attempt adequately to express the emotions with which I received the testimonials of confidence and regard which you have recently addressed to me. To some of those first received separate acknowledgments were returned. But it is now apparent that a like generous enthusiasm pervades the whole 