devotion to its final triumph. Reverses as well as successes are the allotments of war. Let us hope that future may be more generous to us that the past. And when we consider the high soldierly qualities of the army belonging to this command, and call to mind the lofty traits of character which have ever distinguished the populations comprised within its limits, we cannot but feel that the time has come when for us there is to be a more favorable turn of the wheel of fortune. We may, nevertheless, remember that it was a maxim of the religion of the heathen that the gods helped those who helped themselves; a maxim which the teachings of a purer and truer faith have served to confirm and establish.

Our cause is not less the cause of truth, of honor, and of God now than it was the day we first took up arms against the barbarous horde of fanatics and of Puritan and German infidels who have for three years sought to despoil us of our political rights, rob us of our property, destroy our social life, and overturn and crush our altars. The hate of these men has not been abated by the plunder and desolation and bloodshed upon which it has fed, but the rather been deepened and intensified. From them, should they succeed, we are to except nothing but universal confiscation of our property, abject social and personal degradation or death.

The lieutenant-general commanding, therefore, confidently trusts that under a sense of such a hopeless future, the inspiration of our just cause, and the encouragement and example of our noble women, who everywhere regard our invaders with loathing and abhorrence, all past grievances among ourselves, real or supposed, may be forgotten; and white the gallant men who compose our army in the field will resolve afresh to renew their vows of undying resistance to our enemy, those who have not yet taken up arms will come forward promptly to swell the ranks of our battalions and share with their countrymen the duty and the honor of breaking the power of the oppressor. The vigorous employment of our own resources, with unity, harmony, and an unflinching determination to be free, cannot under Got but crown our efforts with triumphant success.

L. POLK,

Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

GRENADA, MISS., December 23, 1863.

Brigadier-General CHALMERS:

Put your command in motion at once for the Memphis and Charleston Railroad to move toward east. Ferguson will receive orders for the same direction.

See Major Dyer about had bread. Use your discretion in absence of orders.

S. D. LEE,

Major-General.

HEADQUARTERS, Jackson, Tennessee, December 23, 1863.

Brigadier-General CHALMERS:

I am moving this morning southward. I find that I have so many unarmed men that I take them south.