OPERATIONS IN TEX., N. MEX., AND ARIZ. [CHAP. XI.

The existing war is one most wickedly waged by the United States upon the Confederate States for the subjugation and oppression of the latter by force of arms. It has already failed. Victory has crowned the arms of the Confederate States wherever an encounter worthy of being called a battle has been joined. Witness the battles of Bull Run, of Manassas, of Springfield, of Lexington, of Leesburg, of Columbus, and the capture in the Mesilla Valley of the whole force of the enemy by scarcely half their number.

The army under my command is ample to seize and to maintain possession of New Mexico against any force which the enemy now has or is able to place within its limits. It is my purpose to accomplish this object without injury to the peaceful people of the country. Follow, then, quietly your peaceful avocations, and from my forces you have nothing to fear. Your persons, your families, and your property shall be secure and safe. Such forage and supplies as my army shall require will be purchased in open market and paid for at fair prices. If destroyed or removed to prevent me from availing myself of them, those who so co-operate with our enemies will be treated accordingly, and must prepare to share their fate.

It is well known to me that many among you have already been forced by intimidation or inveigled by fraud into the ranks of our foes. The day will soon arrive when you can safety abjure their service. When it comes, throw down your arms and disperse to your homes, and you are safe. But persist in the service, and you are lost.

When the authority of the Confederate States shall be established in New Mexico, a government of your best men, to be conducted upon principles with which you are familiar and to which you are attached, will be inaugurated. You religious, civil, and political rights and liberties will be re-established and maintained sacred and intact. In the mean time, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the President and Government of the Confederate States I abrogate and abolish the law of the United States levying taxes upon the people of New Mexico.

To my old comrades in arms, still in the ranks of the usurpers of their Government and liberties, I appeal in the anew of former friendship: Drop at once the arms which degrade you into the tools of tyrants, renounce their service, and array yourselves under the colors of justice and freedom! I am empowered to receive you into the service of the Confederate States; the officers upon their commissions, the men upon their enlistments. By every principle of law and morality you are exonerated from service in the ranks of our enemies. You never engaged in the service of one portion of the old Union to fight against another portion, who, so far from being your enemies, have ever been your best friends. In the sight of God and man, you are justified in renouncing a service iniquitous in itself and in which you never engaged.

Done at headquarters of the Army of New Mexico by me this 20th day of December, A. D. 1861.

H. H. SIBLEY, Brigadier-General, Army C. S.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PACIFIC, San Francisco, Cal., January 31, 1862.

Colonel JAMES H. CARLETON, Colonel First Regiment of Infantry, California Volunteers:

COLONEL: My proposition to the General-in-Chief to organize an expedition under your command, to consist of your own regiment, the