Today in History:

907 Series I Volume II- Serial 2 - First Manassas

Page 907 Chapter IX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.


SPECIAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSPR. General 'S OFFICE,

No. 64.
Richmond, June 5, 1861.

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IV. Brigadier General T. H. Holmes, Provisional Army, will proceed to Fredericksburg, Va., and assume command of the troops in that vicinity.

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By command of the Secretary of War:

JNO. WITHERS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF ALEXANDRIA,
Camp Pickens, June 5, 1861.

To the good People of the Counties of Loundoun, Fairfax, and Prince William:

A reckless and unprincipled tyrant has invaded your soil. Abraham Lincoln, regardless of all moral, legal, and constitutional restraints, has thrown his abolition hosts among you, who are murdering and imprisoning your citizens, confiscating and destroying your property, and committing other acts of violence and outrage too shocking and revolting to humanity to be enumerated. All rules of civilized warfare are abandoned, and they proclaim by their acts, if not on their banners, that their war-cry is "Beauty and booty." All that is dear to man, your honor, and that of your wives and daughters, your fortunes, and your lives, are involved in this momentous contest.

In the name, therefore, of the constituted authorities of the Confederate States,in the sacred cause of constitutional liberty and self-government, for which we are contending, in behalf of civilization and humanity itself, I. G. T. Beauregard, brigadier-general of the Confederate States, commanding at Camp Pickens, Manassas Junction, do make this my proclamation, and invite and rejoin you by every consideration dear to the hearts of freemen and patriots, by the name and memory of your revolutionary fathers, and by the purity and sanctity of your domestic firesides, to rally to the standard of your State and country, and by every means in your power compatible with honorable warfare to drive back and expel the invaders from your land. I conjure you to be true and loyal country and her legal and constitutional authorities, and especially to be vigilant of the movements and acts of the enemy, so as to enable you to give the earliest authentic information to these headquarters or to the officers under my command. I desire to assure you that the utmost protection in my power will be extended to you all.

G. T. BEAUREGARD,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.


HEADQUARTERS,
Harper's Ferry, Va., June 6, 1861.

General R. E. LEE, Commander-in-Chief, Richmond, Va.:

GENERAL: I had the honor to receive your letter of the 3rd instant by the last mail. My object in writing each of the several communications in relation to this command was to ascertain exactly the manner in which the Government wishes it to be used, no instructions having


Page 907 Chapter IX. CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.-CONFEDERATE.