Year: 1863




After two years of warfare scarcely equal


ied In the number, magnitude, and fearful car


mage of its battles warfare in which your


courage and fortitude have illustrated your


country and attracted not only gratitude at
home, but admiration abroad, your enemies


continue struggle in which our final triumph


must be inevitable. Unduly eiated with thei'


recent successes, they imagine that temporary
reverses can quell your spirit or shake your


determination, and they are now gathering
heavy masses for a general INVASION. In the
vain hope that by desperate effort success
may at length be reached.


You know too well, my conntrymen. what


they mean by success. Their malignant rage


aims at nothing less than the determination of
yourselves, your wives and children. They
seek to destroy what they cannot plunder.


They propose as the spois OF victory that your


homes shall be partitioned among the wretches


whose atrocious cruelties have stamped lnfamy


on their government. They design TO lncite
servile insurrection and light the fires of in
cendiarism whenever they can reach your
homes, and they debauch the inferior race,
hitherto docile and contented, by promising
Indulgence of the vilest passions as the price
of their treachery. Conscious of their ina
biity to prevail by legitimate warfare, not
daring to make peace lest they should be hurled
| from their seats of power the men who now
rule in Washington refuse even TO confer on
the subject OF putting an end to outrnges which
disgrace our age, or to listen to a suggestion
for conducting the war according to the usages
| of civilization.


| Fellowcitizen no alternative is left you but


victory, or subjugation, slavery and the utter


ruin of yourselves, your families and your
country. The victory is within your reach
| You need ut stretch forth your hands to grasp
| it. For this and all that is necessary is that
those who are called to the field by every
motive that can move the human heart, should
promptly repair to the post of duty, should
stand by their comrades now in front of the
foe, and thus so strengthen the armies of the
Confederacy as to ensure success. The men
now absent from their posts would if pres 1t
in the field suffice to create numerical equality
between ou1 force and that of the invaders
and when with any approach to such equality
have we failed to be victorious? | believe that
but few of those absent are actuated by ul-


willingness to serve their country but that
many have found it difficult to resist the temp
| tation of a visit to their homes and the loved
| ones from whom they have been SO long sepa-
rated; that others have left for temporary at
tention to their affairs with the intention OF
| returning, and then have shrunk from the con-


sequences of their violation of duty; that Others
again have left their posts from mere restless


ness and desire of change, each quieting the
| upbraidings of his conscience by persuading


himself that his individual services could have
no influence on the general result.


These and other causes, (although far less
disgraceful than the desire to avoid danger,
or to escape from the sacrifices required by
patriotism, are, nevertheless, grievous faults,
and place the cause of our beloved country,
and of everything we hold dear, in imminent
peril | repeat that the men who now owe
duty TO their country, who have been called
out and have not yet reported for duty, or who
have absented themselves from their posts, are
sufficient in number to secure ue victory in the


struggle now impending.


l call on you, then, my countrymen, to hasten
| to your camps, in obedience to the dictates OF
| honor aud of duty and summon those who have
| absented themselves without leave, who have


remained absent beyond the period allowed by


their furloughs, to repair without delay to their
respective commands, and do hereby declare


that grant general pardon and amnesty to


all officers and men within the Confederacy,


now absent without leave, who shall, with the


least possible delay, return to their proper
| posts of duty, but no excuse will be received


for any delay beyond twenty days after the
| hi9N PubtlSdtlOu VI lule ~ -
! State in which the absentee may be at the d 6 {.


ef the publication. This amnesty and pare O
shall extend to all who have been convict,


and are undergoing sentence for absence
without leave or desertion, excepting only


those who have been twice convicted of de-
| sertion.


Finally, l conjure my countrywomen--th,


wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of tn,


Confederacy-to use their all-powerful iniu
| ence in aid of this call, to add one crownina


sacrifice to those which their patriotism ha,


so freely and constantly offered ON their coun


try's altar, and to take care that none wht


owe service in the field shall be sheltered al


home from the disgrace of having deserted
their duty to their families, to their country
| and to their God.


,- Given under my hand and the sea
SEAL I of the Confederate States, at Rich.
- mond, this LIST day of August, in tn,
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred


and sixty three.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.


By the President:


j. p. BENJAMIN,