Resident Joe Biden’s former boss, Barack Obama, used to say that his favorite American president was Abraham Lincoln, who kept the nation from splintering during the Civil War. But, on this Presidents Day, Biden may have a reason to show Lincoln some gratitude.
Indeed, Lincoln, the country’s 16th commander in chief, pardoned Biden’s great-great-grandfather, US Army employee Moses J. Robinette, after he was caught up in an altercation on a Union Army base in 1864, according to a Washington Post report. Robinette was sentenced to two years hard labor in a Florida military prison for his role in the fight with a colleague, the Post reported, citing a transcript of Robinette’s military trial — until Lincoln stepped in and set him free.
Robinette was serving as a civilian veterinary surgeon in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War when, on the evening of March 21, 1864, he got into a verbal altercation with another civilian employee, John J. Alexander. The shouting match turned physical, and eventually, Robinette injured Alexander with his pocketknife, according to the Post.
The camp’s watchmen arrested Robinette. He was charged with intoxication, causing a “dangerous quarrel,” disturbing military discipline and order, and — as a result of the knife wounds — making an “attempt to kill.” A military court convicted Robinette of all charges except the “attempt to kill” charge and sentenced him to the two-year prison sentence in Florida as punishment.
Three Army officers petitioned Lincoln to overturn Robinette’s conviction. After a senator from the recently formed state of West Virginia took up the case, Lincoln pardoned Biden’s ancestor on September 1, 1864. The War Department issued Special Order No. 296, and Robinette was released, returning to his family’s farm in Maryland.
Newly discovered docs
The Post’s account of these events is based on a 22-page transcript unearthed by David Gerleman, a history instructor at George Mason University in Virginia, who discovered the document at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
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