The Daily Dispatch: March 9, 1863., [Electronic resource]

Address of Gen. D. H. Hill.

Soldiers! Your brutal and malignant enemy is putting forth efforts unexampled in the history of the world. Having failed to subjugate you, he is maddened with the thirst for vengeance, and is pushing forward his foreign mercenaries to plunder your property and lay waste your homes. But his marauding hosts have been so often beaten and baffled that they are now discourage and demoralized. Should you be able to check them everywhere for the next sixty days, the three hundred thousand whose time expires in May will not re-enlist, and the war will end before July. Should the scoundrels, however, gain a single substantial success at any one point, the war will be prolonged during the entire Administration of Lincoln. It becomes a solemn duty, then, to labor and fight during the next two months as we have never done before. We must make the war unpopular with the mercenary vandals of the North by harassing and annoying them. We must cut down to six feet by two, the dimensions of the farms which these plunderers propose to appropriate. You will have to endure more hardships, and to fight more desperate battles than you would have done were your ranks property filled. Our cities, towns, and villages are full of young and able-bodied skulkers, wearing the semblance of men, who have dodged from the battle-field under the provisions of the exemption bill. The scorn of the fair sex, and the contempt of all honorable men, have not been able to drive these cowardly miscreants into the ranks. So long as they can fatten upon the miseries of the country, and shelter their worthless carcasses from Yankee cutlets, they are in sensible be shame. But a day of retribution awaits these abortions of humanity. Their own descendants will execrate their memory, when the finger of scorn is pointed and the taunt is uttered, "he is the son, or grandson, or great grandson of an exempt and extortioner."

Do your full duty, soldiers, and leave these poltroons and villains to the execration of posterity. All commanding officers are hereby enjoined to furnish the names of officers and men who distinguish themselves in pitched battles and skirmishes. There so distinguishing themselves will be recommended for promotion, and their names published in the principal papers of their respective States.

The infantry have to bear the brunt of every battle, and to endure special hardships in every campaign. The post of danger and of suffering is the post of honor. If our liberty be ever won. It will be due mainly to the indomitable pluck and sturdy endurance of our heroic infantry.

The Confederate artillery has behaved most nobly, and the wonder is that, with inferior guns and ammunition, it has been able to cope successfully with the splendid armament of the enemy. It has been a mistake, however, to contend with the Yankee artillery. Reserve your fire as at Fredericksburg, for the masses of infantry, and do not withdraw your guns just when they are becoming effective. It is glorious to lose guns by fighting them to the last. It is disgraceful to save them by retiring early from the fight.

The cavalry constitutes the eyes and ears of the army. The safety of the entire command depends upon their vigilance and the faithfulness of their reports. The officers and men who permit themselves to be surprised deserve to die, and the commanding General will spare no efforts to secure them their deserts. Almost equally criminal are the scouts who, through fright, bring in wild sensational reports. They will be court-martialed for cowardice.

Many opportunities will be afforded to the cavalry to harass the enemy, cut off supplies drive to his pickets, &c. Those who have never been in battle will thus be enabled to enjoy the sensation of listening to the sound of hostile shot and shell, and those who have listened a great way off will be able to come some miles nearer, and compare the sensation caused by the distant cannonade with that produced by the rattle of musketry.