LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865). Autograph letter signed (''A. Lincoln'') as President, to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, City Point, 31 March 1865, ''8/30 PM.''

LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865). Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln") as President, to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, City Point, 31 March 1865, "8/30 PM."

One page, 251 x 198mm (toned at extreme margins).

Two days before the fall of Petersburg, and just over two weeks before his assassination, Lincoln forwards Grant's telegraphic dispatches from the front to his Secretary of War. At the start of the final week of the siege Petersburg, Lincoln travelled from Washington to City Point, Virginia to meet with his generals and get a better look at Union efforts to bring the Civil War to a close. During his stay, he would relay General Grant's dispatches from the front back to Secretary of War Stanton in Washington. Lincoln writes the present dispatch chronicling the final Confederate counter-attack, three days before the city's fall: "At 12.30 p.m. to-day General Grant telegraphed me as follows: 'There has been much hard fighting this morning. The enemy drove our left from near Dabney's house back well toward the Boydton Plank road. We are now about to take the offensive at that point, and I hope will more than recover the lost ground.' Later he telegraphed again as follows: 'Our troops, after being driven back on the Boydton plank road, turned and drove the enemy in turn and took the White Oak Road, which we now have. This gives us the ground occupied by the enemy this morning. I will send you a rebel flag captured by our troops in driving the enemy back. There have been four flags captured to-day[.]' Judging by the two points from which General Grant telegraphs, I infer that he moved his Head Quarters about one mile since he sent the first of the two dispatches." On 2 April, Grant captured Petersburg, and the Confederate government evacuated Richmond. On 3 April, Lincoln made a visit to Petersburg, and the following day to Richmond. Robert E. Lee retreated westward to Appomattox and surrendered his army there on 9 April. Lincoln would not have long to savor this victory: he would be shot the evening of 14 April at Ford's Theatre ultimately perishing the following morning. Published in Basler, Collected Works, but from the published copy found in The War of the Rebellion. The present letter was acquired in the late 19th century by William Blaikie (1822-1910), a prominent Utica abolitionist active on the Underground Railroad. Provenance: William Blaikie – by descent to the consignor.

Pre-Lot Text
PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN