Page 223
To Grenville M. Dodge1Jump to section
St. Louis, Mo. Washington, Jan. 19. 1865
If Mrs. Beattie alias Mrs. Wolff, shall be sentenced to death, notify me, and postpone execution till further order. A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS, DNA WR RG 107, Presidential Telegrams, I, 292. General Dodge replied on the same day: ``Mrs. Beattie has been sent to her friends in the rebel lines.'' (DLC-RTL). In a second telegram of the same date he queried: ``Have you any orders for Maj Wolfe Had he not better be sent to Johnsons Island for exchange'' (ibid.). The identity of Mrs. Beattie is not clarified but is indicated in an item appearing in the St. Louis Missouri Republican, November 22, 1864:
``Mrs. Kate Beattie.---A good deal of local interest has been excited within a few days past, in regard to a woman professing to be Mrs. Wolff---wife of the rebel Major condemned to be shot in retaliation for the murder of Maj. Wilson. All our readers know that she is now a prisoner, but the following advertisement from Memphis . . . will be of interest:
`` `Information Wanted: Fifty dollars reward will be given for information as to the whereabouts of Mrs. Kate Beattie, wife of Capt. Tuck. Beattie, of Lexington, Mo. . . . Mrs. Beattie is about five feet four inches tall, has light blue eyes, hair closely shingled, and a scar upon the right cheek. She is rather eccentric, intelligent, and prepossessing in manners.
`` `Address, W. W. Cason, Adams Street, Memphis, Tenn. . . .' ''
Concerning Major Enoch O. Wolf, see Lincoln's communications to General Rosecrans, November 10 and 19, 1864, supra