Lincoln, Abraham, as Sixteenth President

Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln"), 1 page (8 x 5 in.; 202 x 121 mm) on a bifolium of Executive Mansion letterhead, Washington, 18 March 1863, to Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, integral blank with an autograph endorsement signed by Holt and clerical endorsement from the Adjutant General's office; slight discoloration at fold creases.

Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln"), 1 page (8 x 5 in.; 202 x 121 mm) on a bifolium of Executive Mansion letterhead, Washington, 18 March 1863, to Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, integral blank with an autograph endorsement signed by Holt and clerical endorsement from the Adjutant General's office; slight discoloration at fold creases.
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Lincoln requests his Judge Advocate General to investigate the "strong mitigating circumstances" surrounding the court-martial of a member of the West Point class of 1861.

"It is said Lieut. John Benson [Williams], of the 3rd regular Infantry, has been sentenced by a Military Commission, to be dismissed the service. I have some reason to believe there are strong mitigating circumstances in his case, which the Commission perhaps, did not deem competent for them to consider. I will thank you to procure the record, examine it, and report upon it to me."

Holt forwarded Lincoln's letter to the Adjutant General, noting that "No record or report in regard to [the Williams case] has been received at this office." The letter was returned to Holt,  accompanied by the record of Williams's court-martial and docketed "Please see papers within."

After studying the record, Holt made a lengthy report to Secretary of War Stanton, 30 March 1863, which survives in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Holt dismissed the "mitigating circumstances" referenced by Lincoln—Williams's supposedly "severe sickness"—and concluded that "It is evident that Lieut. Williams left his command on the battlefield and returned to Washington, without leave and in known violation of orders and of his duty. ... [H]e has shown himself disqualified for the profession of arms."

On 8 April, Stanton, in turn, forwarded Holt's deposition to the President, "as requested by his note of the 18th Ulto" (that is, the present letter). Lincoln ended the matter with his own terse endorsement on 11 April: "I decline to interfere in Behalf of Lieut. Williams" (Basler 4:169). Although referred to in Basler's note regarding Lincoln's endorsement, the present letter does not appear in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln and is apparently unpublished.

Sotheby's is grateful to James M. Cornelius, Ph.D., Curator, Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, for his assistance with this description.