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- Abraham Lincoln pardoned President Joe Biden’s great-great-grandfather, Moses J. Robinette, in 1864.
- According to documents, Robinette was convicted after getting into a fight with a military colleague during the Civil War.
- He was pardoned with the support of several military officers and a West Virginia state senator.
Former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden’s former boss, often said his favorite American president was Abraham Lincoln, who kept the nation from dividing during the Civil War. But this President’s Day, Biden may have reason to show his gratitude to Lincoln.
In fact, the Washington Post reported that the nation’s 16th commander-in-chief, Mr. Lincoln, was the son of Mr. Biden’s great-grandfather, Moses J. Robinette, a U.S. Army officer who was involved in an altercation at a Union military base in 1864. He is said to have pardoned the Robinette was sentenced to two years of hard labor in a Florida military prison for his role in a brawl with a colleague, the Post reported, citing records from Robinette’s military trial — freed after Lincoln intervened. Until.
Robinette was serving as a civilian veterinarian in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War when, on the night of March 21, 1864, he got into an argument with another civilian employee, John J. Alexander. The shouting match turned physical, and Robinette ended up injuring Alexander with a pocket knife, the newspaper said.
Camp guards arrested Robinette. He was charged with being intoxicated and causing a “dangerous quarrel”, disrupting military discipline and order and “attempted murder” as a result of the knife wound. A military court found Robinette guilty on all charges except for “attempted murder” and sentenced him to two years in prison in Florida.
Three military officers petitioned Lincoln to overturn Robinette’s conviction. Lincoln pardoned Biden’s ancestors on his September 1, 1864, after the recently created West Virginia State Senate took up the case. The War Department issued Special Order No. 296, and Robinette was released and returned to his family’s farm in Maryland.
newly discovered document
The Post’s account of these events is based on 22 pages of records unearthed by David Gelman, a history lecturer at George Mason University in Virginia, who discovered the document at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
Lincoln’s sudden pardon marked a reversal of Robinette’s fortunes, having endured a rather harrowing period during the war. When the war began in 1861, Robinette ran a hotel in Grafton, Virginia. This area, now in West Virginia, was filled with Union supporters and was an important battleground early in the war.
Union soldiers destroyed Robinette’s hotel, and his wife Jane died early in the war. Robinette fled with his children to other relatives in Allegany County, Maryland, the newspaper said.
By 1863, he was hired to help care for the horses and mules that carried ammunition for the Army of the Potomac’s reserve artillery. The mission brought Robinette into conflict with Alexander, who was serving as a brigade coachmaster at an Army winter camp on the banks of the Rappahannock River in Virginia.
Alexander allegedly confronted Robinette after hearing her swearing at a female cook. Records show the altercation escalated into a physical fight. First, both participants raised their fists. Robinette then pulled out a pocket knife.
Robinette later claimed that she had acted only in self-defense and that she had “no malicious intent toward Mr. Alexander before or after”. In a letter sent by three military officers encouraging Mr. Lincoln to overturn Ms. Robinette’s conviction, Mr. Lincoln said he was merely “defending” himself against a much larger and stronger enemy. He claimed that.
Ultimately, Robinette waited three months after being indicted before being sentenced. He spent a month in military prison at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas near Key West, Florida, before being pardoned by Lincoln.
Today, a direct descendant of Robinette sits in Lincoln’s old seat.
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