To George G. Meade1Jump to section
The sentences in the cases of Brice Birdsill, private, Co. B, 124th N.Y. Vols., and Frederick Foster of 99th Penn. Vols. are suspended until further orders. Let the records be forwarded at once.
A. LINCOLN.
Annotation
[1] Copy, DNA WR RG 153, Judge Advocate General, MM 1147. This official copy attested by Edward D. Townsend, filed with court-martial record of Private Brice E. Birdsall, is without date, but Meade's reply received at 4:40 P.M. on December 3, 1863, establishes the date: ``Your dispatch of today in relation to Privates Birdsall & Foster is recd. In obedience to a previous dispatch from you the sentence in the case of Foster has already been suspended That in the case of Birdsall will be suspended & the records forwarded for your action'' (DLC-RTL).
Private Frederick Foster remained in service and was discharged on April 22, 1865. Birdsall's record was returned to the War Department on April 16, 1864, under the order of February 26, 1864, commuting death sentences for deserters to imprisonment on the Dry Tortugas.