Army of Potomac: Washington, October 15, 1863.
On the 4th instant you telegraphed me that Private Daniel Hanson, of Ninety-seventh New York Volunteers, had not yet been tried. When he shall be, please notify me of the result, with a brief statement of his case, if he be convicted. Gustave Blittersdorf, whom you say is enlisted in the One hundred and nineteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, as William Fox, is proven to me to be only fifteen years old last January. I pardon him, and you will discharge him or put him in the ranks at your discretion.2Open page Mathias Brown, of Nineteenth Pennsylvania Volunteers, is proven to me to be eighteen last May, and his friends say he is convicted on an enlistment and for a desertion, both before that time.3Open page If this last be true he is pardoned, to be kept or discharged as you please.