To Robert C. Schenck1Jump to section
Baltimore, Md. Washington, Oct. 22, 1863.
Please come over here. The fact of one of our officers being killed on the Patuxent, is a specimen of what I would avoid. It seems to me we could send white men to recruit better than to send negroes, and thus inaugerate homicides on punctillio. Please come over.
A. LINCOLN.
Annotation
[1] ALS, RPB. General Schenck's reply was received at 4:05 P.M.: ``I will be with you by 10 Oclock tomorrow AM. We had discovered this man Sothern engaged in raising & sending off recruits to the rebel army & were about to send to arrest him when this murder was reported.'' (DLC-RTL).