1862 February 4 Headquarters

HEADQUARTERS
DEPARTMENT OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA
February 4, 1862
General Orders
No. 21

The commanding General calls the attention of the twelve
months' troops under his command to General Orders No. 1, from
the War Department, on the subject of their re-enlistment under the
act of Congress, approved Dec. 11, 1861.

Soldiers! Your country again calls you to the
defence of the noblest of human causes. To the indomitable courage
already exhibited on the battlefield, you have added the rarer virtues
of high endurance, cheerful obedience, and self sacrifice. Accustomed
to the comforts and luxuries of home, you have met and borne the
privations of camp life, the exactions of military discipline, and the
rigors of a winter campaign. The rich results of your courage, patri-
otism and unfaltering virtue are before you. Intrusted with the de-
fence of this important frontier, you have driven back the immense
army which the enemy had sent to invade our country and to establish
his dominion over our people by the wide-spread havoc of a war inau-
gurated without a shadow of constitutional right, and prosecuted n
a spirit of ruthless vengeance. By your valor and firmness you have
kept him in check until the Nations of the Earth have been forced to
see un in our true character, not dismembered and rebellious commu-
nities, but an empire of Confederate States, with a constitution safe in
the affections of the people--institutions and laws in full and unob-
structed operation--a population enjoying all the comforts of life--
and a citizen soldiery who laugh to scorn the threat of subjugation.

Your country now summons you to a nobler duty and a greater
deed. The enemy has gathered up all his energies for a final conflict.--
His enormous masses threaten us on the West; his naval expeditions are
assailing us upon our whole Southern coast, and upon the Potomac, within
a few hours' march, he has a gigantic army, inflamed by lust, and mad-
dened by fanaticism. But the plains of Manassas are not forgotten, and
he shrinks from meeting the disciplined heroes who hurled across the

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Potomac h is grand army, routed and disgraced. He does not propose
to attack this army as long as it holds its present position with undi-
minished numbers and unimpaired discipline; but, protected by his rot-
tifications, he awaits the expiration of your term of service. He recollects
that his own ignoble soldiery, when their term of service expired
"marched away from the scene of the conflict to the sound of the enemy's
cannon:" and he hopes that at that critical moment Southern men
will consent to share with them this infamy. Expecting a large por-
tion of our army to be soon disbanded, he hopes that his immense num-
bers will easily over power your gallant comrades who will be left here,
and thus remove the chief obstacle to his cherished scheme of Southern
subjugation.

The Commanding General calls upon the twelve months men
to stand by their brave comrades who have volunteered for the War--
to re-volunteer at once--and thus show to the world that the patriots
engaged in this struggle for independence will not swerve from the
bloodiest path they may be called to tread. The enemies of your coun-
try as well as her friends are watching your action with deep, intense,
tremulous interest. Such is your position that you can act no obscure
part. Your decision, be it for honor or dishonor, will be written down
in history. You cannot, will not draw back at this solemn crisis of
our struggle, when all that is heroic in the land is engaged, and all
that is precious hangs trembling in the balance.

By command of General JOHNSTON

A.P. MASON

A.A.A. Gen'l


McGregor A1862 .C432N6 Feb. 4