To Ulysses S. Grant1Jump to section
Headquarters Armies of the U.S.
Suspend execution in case of Simon J. Schaffer 15th N.Y. Engineers until further orders and send me the record.
Send above A LINCOLN
JNO. G. NICOLAY Priv. Sec.
Annotation
[1] D, DNA WR RG 107, Presidential Telegrams, I, 326. The body of the telegram is in John Hay's handwriting. The date appears to have been added by a clerk. Lincoln's signature and the remainder is by Nicolay. Grant replied on the same day: ``The execution in the case of Simon J Schaffer 155h N Y Engineers was suspended until further orders on the 27th January and the Record was forwarded to Washington on the following day'' (DLC-RTL). The court-martial record in the case of Simon J. Shaffer, alias Samuel Jefferson, Fifteenth New York Engineers, sentenced February 4, 1865, to be shot for desertion, indicates that he was sent to Dry Tortugas (DNA WR RG 153, Judge Advocate General, NN 2455). Grant's reference to having sent the record on January 27 suggests that the ``Hamel Shaffer'' of Lincoln's telegram to Grant, January 26, supra, may have been confused with Simon J. Shaffer.