AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN
[Relating to a soldier who had deserted. An interesting memento of the traditional kind-heartedness of the great President, even in such a serious matter as the desertion of a soldier in time of war, the almost invariable penalty for which is death. This letter sold for a high price in New York lately.]
EXECUTIVE MANSION
Washington, July 25, 1864.
Thomas Connor, a private in the 1st. Veteran New York Cavalry, is now imprisoned at hard labor for desertion. If the Colonel of said Regiment will say in writing on this sheet, that he is willing to receive him back to the Regiment, I will pardon, and send him.
A. Lincoln.