Year: 1862

Gves Of the Confederate States


In obedience to the constitutional pro-
vision requiring the President, from time
to time, to give to Congress information
of the state of the Confederacy and rec
ommend for their consideration such
measures as he shall Judge necessary and
expedient, l have to communicate that,
since the message at the last session of
the Provisional Congress, events have
demonstrated that the government had
attempted more than it had power to
successfully achieve. Hence, in the ef-
fort to protect by our arms the whole ter
ritory of the Confederate States, seaboard
and inland, we have been so exposed as
recently to encounter serious disasters
When the Confederacy was formed, the
States comprising it were in the peculiar
character of their pursuits, and mis-.
placed confidence in their former associ-
ates, to great extent destitute of the
means for the prosecution of the war or
SO gigantic scale as that to which it has
attained. The workshops and the artists
were mainly to be found in the Northern
States, and one of the first duties which
devolved upon this government was to es-
tablish the necessary manufactures, and
in the meantime to obtain by purchase
from abroad, as far as practicable, what
ever was required for the public defense.
No effort has been spared to effect both
these ends, and though the results have
not equaled our hopes, it is believed that
an impartial judgment will, upon full in
vestigation, award to the various depart
ments of the government, credit for hav-
ing done all which human power and
foresight have enabled them to accom-
plish.


The valor and devotion of the people
have not only sustained the efforts of the
Government, but have gone far to supply
lite deficiencies. The active state of mil
itary preparations among the nations oi
Europe in April last, the date when oul
agents first went abroad, inteposed una
voidable delays in the procurement Of
arms, and the want Of navy has greatly
impeded our efforts to import military
supplies of all sorts.


l have hoped for several days to receive
the official report in relation to our dis.
comfture at Roanoke Island and the fal
of Fort Donelson. They have not yet
reached me, and l am therefore unable tc
communicate to you such information o.
past events and consequences resulting
from them, as would enable me to make
recommendation founded upon the chang.
ed condition which they have produced
Enough is known OF the surrender ol
Roanoke Island to make us feel that il
was deeply humiliating, however imper-
feet may have been the preparations for
defense. The hope is still entertained
that our reported losses at Fort Donel-
son have been greatly exaggerated, mas
much as am not only unwilling, but
unable to believe that large army of our
people have surrendered without des-
perate effort to cut their way through the
investing forces, whatever may have been
their numbers, and to endeavor to make
a junction with other divisions of the ar.
my. But in the absence OF that exact
information which can only be afforded
by official reports, it would be premature
to pass judgment, and my own is reserved
as l trust yours will be, until that infor-
nation is received. In the meantime,
strenuous efforts have been made to throw
forward reinforcements to the armies at
points threatened, and cannot doubt the
bitter disappointments we have borne, by
nerving the people to still greater exer
tions, will speedily secure results more
accordant with our just expectations, ant
as favorable to our cause as those whicl
marked the earlier period of the war.


The reports of the Secretaries of Wa
and Navy will exhibit the mass of re
sources for the conduct of the war whicl
we have been enabled to accumulate, not


withstanding the very serious difficulties
against which we have contended. They
afford cheering hope that our resources
limited as they were at the beginning o
the contest, will during its progress be
come developed to such an extent as full,
TO meet our future wants. The policy O
enlistment for short terms, against whic


l have steadily eontended from the com
mencement of the war, has, in my judg
ment, contributed in no immaterial de
gree to the recent reverses which we hav
guf1or0d and AVIAN uow roudars n diff ou