Beseech.

This coolbert:

Trials/reverses/anguish/suffering!

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy issues a proclamation calling for a day of "fasting, humiliation and prayer".

July 29, 1863 as reported by the New York Times. Thanks to the archives of the Times via reported the headline news of the day the tip from Freeper.

"LATE FROM RICHMOND: Jeff. Davis’ Proclamation Appointing Another Fast Day; His Acknowledgment of Trials and Reverses (7/29/1863)"

We [New York Times] have received the Richmond Whig and Sentinel of the 27th inst., from which we make the following interesting extracts:

"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 befall 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 success on land and sea made us self-confident and forgetful of our reliance on Him? Had not the love of lucre [money] eaten like a gangrene into the very heart of the land, converting too many of us into worshippers of gain and rendering them unmindful of their duty to their country, to their fellow-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 which He has taught 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, in His paternal providence, come the anguish and sufferings of defeat, and that, whether in victory or defeat, our humble supplications are due to 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 do hereby invite the people."

Trials/reverses/anguish/suffering! All consequences of Confederate battlefield defeat Gettysburg and the surrender of the besieged garrison Vicksburg.

Confederate about-face those combined events 3 July [Gettysburg] and 4 July [Vicksburg] respectively causing traumatic shock from which the Confederate armies would not be able to recover for the duration of the war. The proverbial one-two punch.

The situation an appreciation of which was fully understood by the highest echelons Confederate command! Such a proclamation of J. Davis would not have been promulgated otherwise.

coolbert.