iTBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



C93 



ciallv invited to those in which legislation is sag- 

 i on the following subjects, viz. : 



The tenure of office of the general officers in the 

 provisional army, and a proper discrimination in the 

 compensation of the different grades. 



The provision required in aid of invalid officers 

 who have resigned in consequence of wounds or 

 sickness contracted while in the service. 



The amendment of the law which deprives officers 

 in the field of the privilege of purchasing rations, and 

 thus adds to their embarrassment, instead of con- 

 ferring the benefit intended. 



The organization of the general staff of the army, 

 in relation to which a special message will shortly be 

 addressed to you, containing the reasons which com- 

 pelled me to withhold my approval of a bill passed 

 by your predecessors at too late a period of the ses- 

 sion to allow time for returning it for their reconsid- 

 eration. 



The necessity for an increase in the allowance now 

 made for the transportation of officers travelling un- 

 der orders. 



The mode of providing officers for the execution 

 of the conscript laws. 



The ineans_ of securing greater despatch and more 

 regular administration of justice in examining and 

 disposing of the records of cases reported from the 

 courts-martial and military courts in the army. 



The recent events of the war are highly creditable 

 to our troops, exhibiting energy and vigilance com- 

 bined with the habitual gallantry which they have 

 taught us to expect on all occasions: "We have been 

 cheered by important' and valuable successes in 

 Florida, Northern Mississippi, Western Tennessee, 

 and Kentucky, Western Louisiana and Eastern 

 North Carolina, reflecting the highest honor on the 

 skill and conduct of our commanders, and on the 

 incomparable soldiers whom it is their privilege to 

 lead. A naval attack on Mobile was so successfully 

 repulsed at the outer works that the attempt was 

 abandoned, and the nine months' siege of Charleston 

 has been practically suspended, leaving that noble 

 city and its fortresses, imperishable monuments to 

 the skill and fortitude of its defenders. The armies 

 in Northern Georgia and in Northern Virginia still 

 oppose, with unshaken front, a formidable barrier 

 to the progress of the invader ; and our generals, 

 armies and people, are animated by cheerful con- 

 fidence. 



Let us, then, while resolute in devoting all our 

 energies to securing the realization of the bright 

 auspices which encourage us, not forget that our 

 humble and most grateful thanks are aue to Him, 

 without whose guidance and protecting care all hu- 

 man efforts are of no avail, and to whose interpo- 

 sition are due the manifold successes with which 

 we have been cheered. 



JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

 , Mar 2, IStU. 



Jefferson Dae is' s Message. 

 To the Senate and House of Represent ' 



of the Confederate States of America : 

 It is with satisfaction that I welcome your presence 

 at an earlier day than that usual for vour session, and 

 with confidence that I invoke the aid of your counsel 

 at a time of such public exigency. The campaign 

 which was commenced almost simultaneously with 

 your session in May last, and which was still ia 



E" rogress at your adjournment in the middle of June, 

 as not yet reached its close. It has been prosecuted 

 on a scale and with an energy heretofore unequalled, 

 When we revert to the condition of our country at 

 the inception of the operations of the present year, 

 to the magnitude of the preparations made by the 

 enemy, the number of his forces, the accumulation 

 of his warlike supplies, and the prodigality with 

 which lis vast resources have been lavished'in the 

 attempt to render success assured ; when we con- 



trast the numbers md means at our disposal for re- 

 sistance, and when we contemplate the results of a 

 _le apparently so unequal, we cannot fail, while 

 rendering the full meed of deserved praise to our 

 generals and soldiers, to perceive that a power high- 

 er than man has willed our deliverance, and j 

 fully to recognize the protection of a kind Providence 

 in enabling us successfully to withstand the utmost 

 efforts of the enemy for our subjugation. 



At the beginning of the year the State of Texas 

 was partially in possession of the enemy, and largo 

 portions of Louisiana and Arkansas lay apparently 

 defenceless. Of the Federal soldiers who invaded 

 Texas, none are known to remain except as prison- 

 ers of war. In northwestern Louisiana a large and 

 well-appointed army, aided by a powerful fleet, was 

 repeatedly defeated, and deemed itself fortunate in 

 finally escaping with a loss of one-third of its num- 

 bers, a large part of its military trains, and many 

 transports and gunboats. The enemy's occupation 

 of that State is reduced to the narrow district com- 

 manded by the guns of his fleet. Arkansas has been 

 recovered'with the exception of a few fortified posts, 

 while our forces have penetrated into Central Mis- 

 souri, affording to our oppressed brethren in that 

 State an opportunity of which many have availed 

 themselves of striking for liberation from the tyr- 

 anny to which they have been subjected. 



On the east of the Mississippi, in spite of some re- 

 verses, we have much cause for congratulation. The 

 enemy hoped to effect, during the present year, by 

 concentration of forces, the conquest which he had 

 previously failed to accomplish by more extended 

 operations. Compelled, therefore, to withdraw, or 

 seriously to weaken the strength of the armies of 

 occupation at different points, he has afforded us the 

 opportunity of recovering possession of extensive 

 districts of our territory. Nearly the whole cf 

 northern and western Mississippi, of northern Ala- 

 bama, and of western Tennessee, are again in our 

 possession ; and all attempts to penetrate from the 

 coast line into the interior of the Atlantic and Gulf 

 States have been baffled. On the entire ocean and 

 gulf coast of the Confederacy, the whole success of 

 the enemy, with the enormous naval resources at his 

 command", has been limited to the capture of the 

 outer defences of Mobile Bay. 



If we now turn to the results accomplished by the 

 two great armies, so confidently relied on by the in- 

 vaders as sufficient to secure the subversion of our 

 Government and the subjection of our people to for- 

 eign domination, we have still greater cause for 

 devout gratitude to Divine Power. In southwestern 

 Virginia, successive armies which threatened the 

 capture of Lynchburg and Saltville have been routed 

 and driven out of the country, and a portion of East- 

 ern Tennessee reconquered by our troops. In North- 

 ern Virginia extensive districts formerly occupied by 

 the enemy are now free from their presence. In the 

 lower valley, their general rendered desperate by his 

 inability to maintain a hostile occupation, has re- 

 sorted to the infamous expedient of converting a 

 fruitful land into a desert by burning its mills, gran- 

 nries. and homesteads, and destroying the food, 

 standing crops, live stock, and agricultural imple- 

 ments of peaceful non-combatants. The main army, 

 after a series of defeats in which its losses have been 

 enormous ; after attempts by raiding parties to 

 break up our railroad communications, which have 

 resulted in the destruction of a large part of the 

 cavalry engaged in the work ; after constant repulse 

 of repeated assaults on our defensive lines, is, with 

 the aid of heavy reinforcements, but with, it is 

 hoped, waning prospect of further progress in the 

 design, still engaged in an effort, commenced more 

 than" four months ago, to capture the town of Peters- 

 burg. 



The army of Gen. Sherman, although succeeding 

 at the end of the summer in obtaining possession o* 

 Atlanta, has been unable to secure any ultimate ad 



