📰 TODAY IN HISTORY 📰

January 26th, 1864
President Abraham Lincoln telegraphed an order to Major General John Sedgwick to suspend the execution of several soldiers convicted of desertion. The week prior, Lincoln had been visited by the wife of one of the convicted soldiers bearing a letter from their 16 year old daughter:
“Most Honored and Excellent Sir – How shall a child like me attempt to write to you on such business as this concerning my father, J. W. C, who is sentenced – Oh! how can I write it – to be shot. Spare his poor life, I beseech you, and many thanks shall be given you. If his life is taken my mother cannot stand this heavy blow, and will soon go also. I am the oldest of five children. I have three sisters under eight years. Do not leave us fatherless, I beseech you. I could freely give my life to save his. Virginia C.”

General John Sedgwick