Abraham Lincoln.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE.

War department, Washington, D. C., October 8, 1863.

Major-general Meade, Army of Potomac: 

I am appealed to in behalf of August Blittersdorf, at Mitchell’s Station, Va., to be shot to-morrow as a deserter.  I am unwilling for any boy under eighteen to be shot, and his father affirms that he is yet under sixteen.  Please answer.  His regiment or company not given me.

A. Lincoln.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE.

Executive Mansion, Washington, October 8, 1863.

Major-general Meade, Army of Potomac: 

The boy telegraphs from Mitchell’s Station, Va.  The father thinks he is in the One hundred and nineteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers.  The father signs the name “Blittersdorf.”  I can tell no more.

A. Lincoln.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE.

Executive Mansion, Washington, October 12, 1863.

Major-general Meade, Army of Potomac: 

The father and mother of John Murphy, of the One hundred and nineteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, have filed their own affidavits that he was born June 22, 1846, and also the affidavits of three other persons who all swear that they remembered the circumstances of his birth and that it was in the year 1846, though they do not remember the particular day.  I therefore, on account of his tender age, have concluded to pardon him, and to leave it to yourself whether to discharge him or continue him in the service.

A. Lincoln.

Telegram to W. S. Rosecrans.
[Cipher.]
War department, October 12, 1863.8.35 A.M.

Major-general Rosecrans, Chattanooga, Term.: 

As I understand, Burnside is menaced from the west, and so cannot go to you without surrendering East Tennessee.  I now think the enemy will not attack Chattanooga, and I think you will have to look out for his making a concentrated drive at Burnside.  You and Burnside now have him by the throat, and he must break your hold or perish I therefore think you better try to hold the road up to Kingston, leaving Burnside to what is above there.  Sherman is coming to you, though gaps in the telegraph prevent our knowing how far he is advanced.  He and Hooker will so support you on the west and northwest as to enable you to look east and northeast.  This is not an order.  General Halleck will give his views.

A. Lincoln.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL G. G. MEADE.

Washington, October 12, 1863. 9 A.M.