Pass for Mrs. Willis F. Jones1Jump to section
Allow Mrs. Willis F. Jones to pass our lines with ordinary baggage, go South & return. A. LINCOLN
Feb. 12. 1865
Annotation
[1] ADS, owned by William H. Townsend, Lexington, Kentucky. This pass written on a small card accompanies a letter to Lincoln from Martha M. Jones, Versailles, Kentucky, February 1, 1865:
``My husband, Maj. Willis F. Jones, Adgnt Gen of [Charles W.] Field's Division of the Confederate Army was killed in battle before Richmond on the 13th of October last. I have been separated from him for two long years, during which time I have experienced almost every conceivable trial---the most severe of which resulted from the unsuccessful applications made in my behalf to the War Department by many of the most eminent military and professional men of this state for permission for me to visit him there during a dangerous and protracted illness.
``I now address your Excellency and entreat you to grant me the privilege of going to Richmond that I may visit his tomb, and the friends who attended his last moments and received his personal effects which are of sacred and inestimable value to me; and also permission to bring from the South his man servant, whom I desire to manumit in consideration of his fidelity to his master. . . .''