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To Edwin M. Stanton1Jump to section
Hon. Secretary of War, please have the Judge Advocate General examine & report upon this case. A. LINCOLN
Sep. 23. 1863.
Annotation
[1] AES, IHi. Lincoln's endorsement appears on a fragment of a letter from Mrs. Josephine Campbell, requesting that her brother William T. Godwin (Goodwin) of Philadelphia be restored to his rank as first lieutenant:
``He served through all the campaign in Virginia, down to the last Battle before Richmond. He went from a sick couch to join those battles. He was in twenty one engagements.
``He was then sick with Typhoid fever. By permission of the surgion in charge of the Hospital at Newark I took him home & nursed him. While there, and yet sick, he was summarily dismissed from the service.
``He is now drafted as a private and among the conscripts in Pa.''
Additional endorsements referred the case to Assistant Adjutant General James A. Hardie, who endorsed on September 26: ``Respectfully referred to John Hay Esq. There are probably important papers in this case, believed to be not a meritorious one, which are momentarily mislaid. They will be sent as soon as found.''
William T. Goodwin (or Godwin) was appointed second lieutenant in the Tenth U.S. Infantry on May 15, 1861. No record of his reappointment has been found.