Proclamation by President Dave, July 21, 1863

Again do I call upon the people of the Confederacy--a people who believe that the Lord reigneth, and that His overruling Providence ordereth all things--to unite in prayer and humble submission under His chastening hand, and to beseech His favor on our suffering country.

It is meet that when trials and reverses befal [sic] us we should seek to take home to our hearts and consciences the lessons which they teach, and profit by the self-examination for which they prepare us. Had not our successes on land and sea made us self-confident and forgetful of our reliance on Him? Had not the love of lucre eaten like a gangrene into the very heart of the land, converting too many among us into worshippers of gain and rendering them unmindful of their duty to their country, to their yellow-men and to their God? Who then will presume to complain that we have been chastened or to despair of our just cause and the protection of our Heavenly Father.

Let us rather receive in humble thankfulness the lesson He has taught us in our recent reverses, devoutly acknowledging that to Him, and not to our own feeble arms, are due the honor and the glory of victory; that from him, and not to our own feeble arms, are due the honor and the glory of victory; that from Him, in His paternal Providence, come the anguish and sufferings of defeat, and that, whether in victory or defeat, our humble supplications are due at His footstool.

Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of these Confederate States, do issue this, my proclamation, setting apart Friday, the 21st day of August ensuing, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer; and I hereby do invite the people of the Confederate States to repair, on that day, to their respective places of public worship, and to unite in supplication for the favor and protection of that God who has hitherto conducted us safely through all the dangers that environed us.

In faith whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal of the Confederate States, at Richmond, this twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.