A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, Including the Diplomatic Correspondence, 1861-1865/Volume 1/Provisional Congress, Third Session
THIRD SESSION.
MET AT RICHMOND, VA., JULY 20, 1861.
ADJOURNED AUGUST 31, 1861.
MESSAGES.
To the Congress of the Confederate States of America.
Gentlemen: My message,[1] addressed to you at the commencement of the session, contained such full information of the state of the Confederacy as to render it unnecessary that I should now do more than call your attention to such important facts as have occurred during the recess, and to matters connected with the public defense.
I have again to congratulate you on the accession of new members to our confederation of free, equal, and sovereign States. Our loved and honored brethren of North Carolina and Tennessee have consummated the action, foreseen and provided for at your last session, and I have had the gratification of announcing, by proclamation, in conformity with law, that those States were admitted into the Confederacy.
The people of Virginia also, by a majority previously unknown in her history, have ratified the action of her Convention, uniting her fortunes with ours. The States of Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia have likewise adopted the permanent Constitution of the Confederate States, and no doubt is entertained of its adoption by Tennessee at the election to be held early next month.
I deemed it advisable to direct the removal of the several Executive Departments, with their archives, to this city, to which you had removed the seat of government, immediately after your adjournment. The aggressive movements of the enemy required prompt and energetic action. The accumulation of his forces on the Potomac sufficiently demonstrated that his efforts were to be directed against Virginia; and from no point could the necessary measures for her defense and protection be so efficiently protected as from her own capital.
The rapid progress of events for the last few weeks has fully sufficed to strip the veil behind which the true policy and purposes of the Government of the United States had been previously concealed; their odious features now stand fully revealed; the message of their President and the action of their Congress during the present month confess the intention of subjugating these States by war, whose folly is equaled by its wickedness; a war by which it is impossible to attain the proposed result, whilst its dire calamities, not to be avoided by us, will fall with double severity on themselves.
Commencing in March last, with an affectation of ignoring the secession of the seven States which first organized this Government; persisting in April in the idle and absurd assumption of the existence of a riot which was to be dispersed by a posse comitatus; continuing in successive months the false representation that these States intended offensive war, in spite of the conclusive evidence to the contrary, furnished as well by official action as by the very basis on which this Government is constituted, the President of the United States and his advisers succeeded in deceiving the people of those States into the belief that the purpose of this Government was not peace at home, but conquest abroad; not the defense of its own liberties, but the subversion of those of the people of the United States.
The series of maneuvers by which this impression was created: the art with which they were devised, and the perfidy with which they were executed, were already known to you; but you could scarcely have supposed that they would be openly avowed, and their success made the subject of boast and self-laudation in an executive message. Fortunately for the truth of history, however, the President of the United States details with minuteness the attempt to reënforce Fort Pickens, in violation of an armistice of which he confesses to have been informed, but "only by rumors too vague and uncertain to fix attention;" the hostile expedition dispatched to supply Fort Sumter, admitted to have been undertaken with a knowledge that its success was impossible; the sending of notice to the Governor of South Carolina of his intention to use force to accomplish his object; and then, quoting from his inaugural address the assurance that there could be no conflict unless these States were the aggressors, he proceeds to declare that his conduct, as just related by himself, was a performance of this promise, "so free from the power of ingenious sophistry as that the world should not be able to misunderstand it;" and in defiance of his own statement that he gave notice of the approach of a hostile fleet, he charges these States with becoming the assailants of the United States, "without a gun in sight or in expectancy to return their fire, save only the few in the fort." He is indeed fully justified in saying that the case "is so free from the power of ingenious sophistry that the world will not be able to misunderstand it."
Under cover of this unfounded pretense that the Confederate States are the assailants, that high functionary, after expressing his concern that some foreign nations "had so shaped their action as if they supposed the early destruction of our National Union was probable," abandons all further disguise, and proposes "to make this contest a short and decisive one," by placing at the control of the Government for the work at least 400,000 men and $400,000,000. The Congress, concurring in the doubt thus intimated as to the sufficiency of the force demanded, has increased it to half a million of men. These enormous preparations in men and money, for the conduct of a war on a scale more gigantic than any which the new world has ever witnessed, is a distinct avowal, in the eyes of civilized man, that the United States are engaged in a conflict with a great and powerful nation; they are at last compelled to abandon the pretense of being engaged in dispersing rioters and suppressing insurrections; and are driven to the acknowledgment that the ancient Union has been dissolved. They recognize the separate existence of these Confederate States, by the interdiction, embargo, and blockade of all commerce between them and the United States, not only by sea, but by land; not only in ships, but in rail cars; not only with those who bear arms, but with the entire population of the Confederate States. Finally, they have repudiated the foolish conceit that the inhabitants of this Confederacy are still citizens of the United States, for they are waging an indiscriminate war upon them all, with a savage ferocity unknown to modern civilization. In this war, rapine is the rule; private residences, in peaceful rural retreats, are bombarded and burnt; grain crops in the field are consumed by the torch; and when the torch is not convenient, careful labor is bestowed to render complete the destruction of every article of use or ornament remaining in private dwellings, after their inhabitants have fled from the outrages of a brutal soldiery.
In 1781 Great Britain, when invading her revolted colonies, took possession of the very district of country near Fortress Monroe, now occupied by troops of the United States. The houses then inhabited by the people, after being respected and protected by avowed invaders, are now pillaged and destroyed by men who pretend that the victims are their fellow-citizens.
Mankind will shudder to hear the tales of outrages committed on defenseless females by soldiers of the United States now invading our homes; yet these outrages are prompted by inflamed passions and the madness of intoxication. But who shall depict the horror with which they will regard the cool and deliberate malignity which, under pretext of suppressing an insurrection, said by themselves to be upheld by a minority only of our people, makes special war on the sick, including the women and the children, by carefully devised measures to prevent their obtaining the medicines necessary for their cure. The sacred claims of humanity, respected even during the fury of actual battle, by careful diversion of attack from the hospitals containing wounded enemies, are outraged in cold blood by a government and people that pretend to desire a continuance of fraternal connections.
All these outrages must remain unavenged, save by the universal reprobation of mankind, in all cases where the actual perpetrators of the wrongs escape capture. They admit of no retaliation. The humanity of our people would shrink instinctively from the bare idea of waging a like war upon the sick, the women, and the children of the enemy.
But there are other savage practices which have been resorted to by the Government of the United States, which do admit of repression by retaliation. I have been driven to the necessity of enforcing this repression. The prisoners of war taken by the enemy on board the armed schooner Savannah, sailing under our commission, were, as I was credibly advised, treated like common felons; put in irons; confined in a jail usually appropriated to criminals of the worst dye, and threatened with punishment as such. I had made an application for the exchange of these prisoners, to the commanding officer of the enemy's squadron off Charleston harbor, but that officer had already sent the prisoners to New York when the application was made. I, therefore, deemed it my duty to renew the proposal for the exchange, to the constitutional Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, the only officer having control of the prisoners. To this end I dispatched an officer to him, under a flag of truce; and, in making the proposal, I informed President Lincoln of my resolute purpose to check all barbarities on prisoners of war, by such severity of retaliation on the prisoners held by us as should secure the abandonment of the practice.
This communication was received and read by the officer in command of the Army of the United States, and a message was brought from him, by the bearer of my communication, that a reply would be returned by President Lincoln as soon as possible. I earnestly hope that this promised reply, which has not yet been received, will convey the assurance that prisoners of war will be treated, in this unhappy contest, with that regard to humanity which has made such conspicuous progress in the conduct of modern warfare. As a measure of precaution, however, and until the promised reply is received, I still retain in close custody some officers captured from the enemy, whom it had been my pleasure previously to enlarge on parole, and whose fate must necessarily depend on that of the prisoners held by the enemy.
I append a copy of my communication[2] to the President and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the report of the officer charged to deliver it, marked Doc. A.
There are some other passages in the remarkable paper to which I have directed your attention, having reference to the peculiar relations which exist between this Government and the States usually termed the border slave States, which cannot properly be withheld from notice.
The hearts of our people are animated by sentiments toward the inhabitants of these States, which found expression in your enactment refusing to consider them as enemies, or to authorize hostilities against them. That a very large portion of the people of those States regard us as brethren; that if unrestrained by the actual presence of large armies, the subversion of civil authority and the declaration of martial law, some of them at least would joyfully unite with us; that they are with almost entire unanimity opposed to the prosecution of the war waged against us, are facts of which daily recurring events fully warrant the assertion.
The President of the United States refuses to recognize in these, our late sister States, the right of refraining from attack on us; and justifies his refusal by the assertion that the States have no other power "than that reserved to them in the Union by the Constitution, no one of them having ever been a State out of the Union."
This view of the constitutional relations between the States and the General Government is a fitting introduction to another assertion of the message, that the Executive possesses the power of suspending the writ of habeas corpus, and of delegating that power to military commanders, at his discretion; and both these propositions claim a respect equal to that which is felt for the additional statement of opinion in the same paper, that it is proper, in order to execute the laws, that "some single law, made in such extreme tenderness of the citizen's liberty, that practically it relieves more of the guilty than the innocent, should, to a very limited extent, be violated."
We may well rejoice that we have forever severed our connection with a government that thus tramples on all the principles of constitutional liberty, and with a people in whose presence such avowals could be hazarded.
The operations in the field will be greatly extended by reason of the policy which, heretofore secretly entertained, is now avowed and acted on by the United States. The forces hitherto raised proved ample for the defense of the seven States which originally organized the Confederacy, as is evinced by the fact that, with the exception of three fortified islands, whose defense is efficiently aided by a preponderating naval force, the enemy has been driven completely out of those States; and now, at the expiration of five months from the formation of the Government, not a single hostile foot presses their soil. These forces, however, must necessarily prove inadequate to repel the invasion by half a million of men, now proposed by the enemy; and a corresponding increase in our forces will become necessary. The recommendations for the raising and efficient equipment of this additional force will be contained in the communication of the Secretary of War, to which I need scarcely invite your earnest attention.
In my message delivered in April last, I referred to the promise of abundant crops, with which we were cheered.[3] The grain crops, generally, have since been harvested, and the yield has proven to be the most abundant known in our history. Many believe the supply adequate to two years' consumption of our population. Cotton, sugar, and tobacco, forming the surplus production of our agriculture, and furnishing the basis of our commercial interchanges, present the most cheering promise; and a kind Providence has smiled on the labor which extracts the teeming wealth of our soil in all portions of our Confederacy.
It is the more gratifying to be able to give you this assurance, because of the need of a large and increased expenditure in the support of our Army. Elevated and purified by the sacred cause they maintain, our fellow-citizens of every condition of life exhibit the most self-sacrificing devotion. They manifest a laudable pride in upholding their independence, unaided by any resources other than their own; and the immense wealth which a fertile soil and genial climate have accumulated in this Confederacy of agriculturists could not be more strikingly displayed than in the large revenues which, with eager zeal, they have contributed at the call of their country. In the single article of cotton the subscriptions to the loan proposed by the Government cannot fall short of fifty millions of dollars, and will probably largely exceed that amount; and scarcely an article required for the consumption of the Army is provided otherwise than by subscription to the produce loan, so happily devised by your wisdom. The Secretary of the Treasury, in the report submitted to you by him, will give you the amplest details connected with that branch of the public service.
But it is not alone in their prompt pecuniary contributions that the noble race of freemen who inhabit these States evince how worthy they are of the liberties which they so well know how to defend. In numbers far exceeding those authorized by your laws they have pressed the tender of their services against the enemy. Their attitude of calm and sublime devotion to their country; the cool and confident courage with which they are already preparing to meet the threatened invasion in whatever proportions it may assume; the assurance that their sacrifices and their services will be renewed from year to year with unfaltering purpose, until they have made good to the uttermost their right to self-government; the generous and almost unquestioning confidence which they display in their Government during the pending struggle — all combine to present a spectacle such as the world has rarely, if ever, seen.
To speak of subjugating such a people, so united and determined, is to speak a language incomprehensible to them. To resist attacks on their rights or their liberties is with them an instinct. Whether this war shall last one, or three, or five years, is a problem they leave to be solved by the enemy alone; it will last till the enemy shall have withdrawn from their borders — till their political rights, their altars, and their homes are freed from invasion. Then, and then only, will they rest from this struggle to enjoy in peace the blessings which with the favor of Providence they have secured by the aid of their own strong hearts and sturdy arms.Richmond, July 20, 1861.
DISPATCH OF PRESIDENT DAVIS TO THE CONGRESS.
Soon after prayer in the Confederate Congress, on the morning of the 22d,[4] the following dispatch was read to that body:
Night has closed upon a hard-fought field. Our forces were victorious. The enemy was routed, and fled precipitately, abandoning a large amount of arms, ammunition, knapsacks, and baggage. The ground was strewed for miles with those killed, and the farmhouses and the ground around were filled with wounded.
Pursuit was continued along several routes toward Leesburg and Centerville until darkness covered the fugitives. We have captured several field batteries, stands of arms, and Union and State flags. Many prisoners have been taken. Too high praise cannot be bestowed, whether for the skill of the principal officers or for the gallantry of all of our troops. The battle was mainly fought on our left. Our force was 15,000; that of the enemy estimated at 35,000.
Hon. Howell Cobb. President of the Congress, C. S. A.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the resolution of inquiry of this date in relation to hostile preparations for the descent of the river Mississippi, and whether preparations for defense against such threatened attack have been made, with advice as to the mode of adopting a plan for that purpose, and in reply have to state that the only information I have in relation to the described preparations for descent is derived from public newspapers and rumors; they had, however, such stamp of credibility as to induce to measures to repel the attack if attempted. Estimates have been prepared by the Secretary of the Navy for means described in the accompanying report, and which, in conjunction with the land batteries constructed and others devised, will, it is hoped, be adequate for the need.
Richmond, July 31, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
Sir: In accordance with a resolution of the Congress adopted on the 29th inst., I herewith transmit a copy of the report[5] of Lieut. Col. James H. Burton, in charge of Va. Ord. to Maj. J. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of Congress of Confederate States.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the resolution of inquiry of this date in relation to the commissariat of the Confederate States, and to reply that its condition is, in my judgment, quite as good as was reasonable to expect. The occupation of the railroads in the transportation of troops and munitions of war has interfered with the collection of the desired supply of bacon, but no complaint of insufficiency of rations has reached me until within a few days past. I have been informed of a failure of issues to troops at Manassas; the chief commissary there has communicated to me that the failure was restricted to the articles of hard bread and bacon. As this, however, was not consistent with the complaint made, inquiries have been instituted as well to remedy any existing irregularities as to prevent such occurrence in future.
To the President of Congress of Confederate States.
Sir: I have reliable information that a considerable force of Missourians now coöperating with our troops near the northern frontier of Arkansas are destitute of the supplies necessary to their efficiency, and that the enemy have such power within the limits of the State as to deprive its Government of the capacity to give to said force the necessary relief. Under these circumstances I recommend the enactment of a law appropriating, say one million of dollars, to supply the Missourians who are or may be coöperating with us with such clothing, subsistence, arms, and ammunition as may be necessary for them, and which it may be practicable to furnish. The same to be supplied under such regulations as Congress may determine.
Richmond, August 8, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
Sir: I herewith transmit to the Congress the inclosed communication from the Hon. Secretary of War, recommending certain appropriations therein mentioned.
Richmond, August 10, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
Sir: I herewith transmit to the Congress a communication from the Hon. Secretary of War, asking for an appropriation, herein named, for the support of the military hospitals.
Richmond, August 15, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
Sir: I herewith transmit to the Congress a communication from the Hon. Secretary of War, asking for an appropriation of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars to provide for cooks and nurses to minister to the sick and wounded of the Army.
Confederate States of America,
Richmond, August 17, 1861.
The Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
Sir: In reply to the resolution of Congress of the 15th inst., calling upon me to furnish that body with the official reports of the various battles fought by our armies since its last adjournment, I have the honor herewith to submit the report of the Secretary of War concerning your resolution.
Richmond, August 21, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.[6]
Sir: In response to the resolution of the Congress of August 17, 1861, I herewith transmit all the official information[7] which I have in relation to the subject of inquiry. Letters of an unofficial character have been received, and though not entirely accordant in their statements, the general tenor has shown that the treatment received by our fellow-citizens, whether prisoners of war or captives taken from their homes, has not been such as the usage of the most civilized nations prescribes.
Richmond, August 22, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
Sir: I herewith transmit to the Congress the inclosed estimate of the Hon. Postmaster General for the service of his Department for the year ending February 18, 1862, with an accompanying explanation.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.[8]
Sir: In response to the resolution of the Congress of the 22d inst., I herewith transmit the inclosed communication[9] from the Hon. Secretary of War.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
Sir: I hereby nominate, for the advice and consent of the Congress, the Hon. James M. Mason, of Virginia, to be Commissioner to England, and the Hon. John Slidell, of Louisiana, to be Commissioner to France.
Richmond, August 30, 1861.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
Sir: The Congress having passed an act to aid the people of Kentucky in repelling an invasion or occupation of their soil by the armed forces of the United States I would recommend that an appropriation of one million of dollars be made for the purpose of carrying into effect the object of said act.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
Sir: The resolution of the Congress of this date, calling for all the information in my possession in relation to the landing of the Federal troops upon the coast of North Carolina, and inquiring what steps, if any, have been taken to repel the invasion, and to put the coast in a state of defense, has just been received; and I have to reply that no official report of the occurrence has been received. I transmit copies of the telegrams[10] which contain all the information which has been received by the Executive Department.
Preparations to put the coast of the State of North Carolina in a proper condition for defense are still in progress, and will receive such additional attention as this occasion indicates to be necessary. It is not deemed consistent with the public interest further to state the movements of troops which, in this connection, have been ordered and are in contemplation.
Hon. Howell Cobb, President of the Congress.
I nominate the officers on the accompanying list to be Generals in the Army of the Confederate States, to take rank according to the dates set opposite to their names, respectively, agreeably to the recommendation of the Secretary of War.
Sam'l Cooper, to date from 16th May, 1861.
Albert S. Johnston,[11] to date from 30th May, 1861.
Robt. E. Lee, to date from 14th June, 1861.
Joseph E. Johnston, to date from 4th July, 1861.
G. T. Beauregard, to date from 21st July, 1861.
VETO MESSAGE.
To the Congress.
Gentlemen: I have had under consideration the bill entitled "An Act to authorize the appointment of an additional Assistant Surgeon to each regiment in the Army of the Confederate States," and feel so well convinced that the expenditure which it requires is unnecessary, and that the means can ill be spared in the present condition of the Treasury, that I am reluctantly compelled to return it for your reconsideration.
The medical and surgical force already provided by law, including the provision recently made for surgeons for hospitals, will require an expenditure of about two millions and a half of dollars. Power is already vested in me to employ temporarily the aid of physicians in hospitals, and you have appropriated $50,000 for that purpose. Discretion is also given to the Secretary of War, by the act of 26th February, 1861, to appoint as many assistant surgeons as the service may require; and the legislation on the entire subject is on the most liberal scale.
Yet the act now presented leaves me no discretion to limit the number of the additional assistant surgeons to be appointed. It orders an additional officer to the medical staff of each regiment, whether wanted or not; and thus requires an additional annual expenditure of seven hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars ($732,000).
I am aware that there have been causes of complaint in relation to neglect of our sick and wounded soldiers; but this, it is believed, arises not so much from an insufficiency in the number of the surgeons and assistant surgeons as from inattention or want of qualification, and I am endeavoring to apply the proper remedy by organizing a board of examiners, so as to ascertain who are the officers really to blame, and replace them by others more competent and efficient. I feel confident that, by this course, ample medical assistance would be secured for the troops without further expenditure. The surgeons and assistant surgeons, heretofore appointed, have in most instances received their commissions in consequence of the recommendations of the officers of the regiments to which they are attached. This was almost the only means of making selections in the sudden emergencies of the war, and experience has suggested that many of the officers so appointed are unequal to the duties of their stations.
For these reasons, I hope that when you take the subject into reconsideration, you will be able to concur with me in the opinion that this additional expenditure can be avoided, and that there is no necessity for the passage of the bill.[Received August 22, 1861.]
PROCLAMATIONS.
By the President of the Confederate States.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, the Congress of the Confederate States of America did by an act approved on the 8th day of August, 1861, entitled "An Act respecting alien enemies," make provision that proclamation should be issued by the President in relation to alien enemies, and in conformity with the provision of said act:
Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, do issue this my proclamation; and I do hereby warn and require every male citizen of the United States of the age of fourteen years and upward now within the Confederate States and adhering to the Government of the United States and acknowledging the authority of the same, and not being a citizen of the Confederate States, to depart from the Confederate States within forty days from the date of this proclamation. And I do warn all persons above described who shall remain within the Confederate States after the expiration of said period of forty days that they will be treated as alien enemies.
Provided, however, That this proclamation shall not be considered as applicable during the existing war to citizens of the United States residing within the Confederate States with intent to become citizens thereof, and who shall make a declaration of such intention in due form, acknowledging the authority of this Government; nor shall this proclamation be considered as extending to the States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, the District of Columbia, the Territories of Arizona and New Mexico, and the Indian Territory south of Kansas, who shall not be chargeable with actual hostility or other crime against the public safety, and who shall acknowledge the authority of the Government of the Confederate States.
And I do further proclaim and make known that I have established the rules and regulations hereto annexed in accordance with the provisions of said law.
Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States of America at the city of Richmond on this 14th day of August, A.D. 1861.By the President:
Regulations Respecting Alien Enemies.
The following regulations are hereby established respecting alien enemies, under the provisions of an act approved 8th of August, 1861, entitled "An Act Respecting Alien Enemies:"
1. Immediately after the expiration of the term of forty days from the date of the foregoing proclamation, it shall be the duty of the several district attorneys, marshals, and other officers of the Confederate States to make complaint against aliens or alien enemies coming within the purview of the act aforesaid, to the end that the several courts of the Confederate States and of each State having jurisdiction may order the removal of such aliens or alien enemies beyond the territory of the Confederate States or their restraint and confinement, according to the terms of said law.
2. The marshals of the Confederate States are hereby directed to apprehend all aliens against whom complaints may be made under said law and to hold them in strict custody until the final order of the court, taking special care that such aliens obtain no information that could possibly be made useful to the enemy.
3. Whenever the removal of any alien beyond the limits of the Confederate States is ordered by any competent authority under the provisions of said law the marshal shall proceed to execute the order in person or by deputy or other discreet person in such manner as to prevent the alien so removed from obtaining any information that could be used to the prejudice of the Confederate States.
4. Any alien who shall return to these States during the war after having been removed therefrom under the provisions of said law shall be regarded and treated as an alien enemy, and if made prisoner shall be at once delivered over to the nearest military authority to be dealt with as a spy or as a prisoner of war, as the case may require.
By the President of the Confederate States.
A PROCLAMATION.
Whereas, through accident a bill to authorize the President to continue the appointments made by him in the military and naval service during the recess of Congress or the present session, and to submit them to Congress at its next session, failed to be delivered to the President for his signature prior to the adjournment of Congress; and
Whereas, the failure of said bill to become a law would cause serious inconvenience to the public service:
Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, do issue this my proclamation, convoking the Congress of the Confederate States for the transaction of business, at the Capitol, in the city of Richmond, on the 3d day of September, at 12 o'clock noon of that day, of which all who shall at that time be entitled to act as members of that body are hereby required to take notice.
Given under my hand and the seal of the Confederate States, at Richmond, this 2d day of September, A.D. 1861.
[SEAL.]By the President:
RESOLUTIONS OF THANKS.
Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That the thanks of Congress are eminently due, and are hereby cordially given, to General Joseph E. Johnston and General Gustave T. Beauregard, and to the officers and troops under their command, for the great and signal victory obtained by them over forces of the United States far exceeding them in number, in the battle of the twenty-first of July, at Manassas; and for the gallantry, courage, and endurance evinced by them, in a protracted and continuous struggle of more than ten hours; a victory, the great results of which will be realized in the future successes of the war, and which, in the judgment of Congress, entitles all who contributed to it to the gratitude of their country.
Resolved, further, That the foregoing resolution be made known in appropriate general orders, by the Generals in command, to the officers and troops to whom they are addressed.
Approved August 6, 1861.
Whereas, it has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe to the arms of the Confederate States another glorious and important victory in a portion of the country where a reverse would have been disastrous by exposing the families of the good people of the State of Missouri to the unbridled license of the brutal soldiery of an unscrupulous enemy: Therefore be it
Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States, That the thanks of Congress are cordially tendered to Brig. Gen. Ben McCulloch and the officers and soldiers of his brave command for their gallant conduct in defeating, after a battle of six hours and a half, a force of the enemy equal in numbers and greatly superior in all their appointments, thus proving that a right cause nerves the hearts and strengthens the arms of the Southern people, fighting, as they are, for their liberty, their homes, and firesides, against an unholy despotism.
Resolved further, That in the opinion of Congress General McCulloch and his gallant troops are entitled to and will receive the grateful thanks of our people.
Resolved further, That the foregoing resolutions be communicated to that command by the proper Department.
Approved August 22, 1861.
- ↑ Page 63.
- ↑ See page 115.
- ↑ See page 81.
- ↑ July, 1861.
- ↑ Relating to the use of the machinery for the manufacture of muskets, removed from Harpers Ferry.
- ↑ See also message of August 23, 1861, page 128.
- ↑ Relative to the hanging of two sentinels of the South Carolina troops by Federal forces, and treatment of Confederate prisoners by Federal authorities.
- ↑ See also message of August 21, 1861, page 127.
- ↑ Relative to the hanging of two sentinels of the South Carolina troops by Federal forces.
- ↑ Relative to the capture of Hatteras Inlet.
- ↑ Killed in battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862.
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