Lincoln's Last Days: Proclamation 124
On March 11, 1865, 150 years ago today, the Civil War continued to go well for the Union side, as it appeared that the end of the war was coming closer. During March and April of 1865, troops under Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston fought General William T. Sherman's 60,000-man force as it marched north through the Carolinas during the final weeks of the Civil War. On March 11, Sherman captured the town of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and promptly destroyed the Fayetteville arsenal.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, Congress was considering what reconstruction of the south would look like following the war. This prompted an editorial in the Shreveport, Louisiana Semi-Weekly News to urge states to send their slaves to fight for the Confederate Army. The author of the editorial wrote "What state will lead in sending the black man to the aid of General Lee?" The writer went on to state "This only alternative is presented. Either we must fight the Yankees with our negroes, or they will take them and hold them as a shield, fighting us with their emancipation proclamation in force. And if there be such a place as hell on earth, then it will be illustrated by our condition."
It was on March 11, 1865 that President Abraham Lincoln issued Proclamation 124 - Offering Pardon to Deserters. Lincoln gave deserters 60 days to return to their posts and serve out the balance of their service, plus any time lost as the result of their desertion. If they did so, they would receive a full pardon for the offence. The proclamation read as follows:
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Whereas the twenty-first section of the act of Congress approved on the 3d instant, entitled "An act to amend the several acts heretofore passed to provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces and for other purposes," requires "that, in addition to the other lawful penalties of the crime of desertion from the military or naval service, all persons who have deserted the military or naval service of the United States who shall not return to said service or report themselves to a provost-marshal within sixty days after the proclamation hereinafter mentioned shall be deemed and taken to have voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their rights of citizenship and their rights to become citizens, and such deserters shall be forever incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the United States or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all persons who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and all persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction of the district in which he is enrolled or go beyond the limits of the United States with intent to avoid any draft into the military or naval service duly ordered, shall be liable to the penalties of this section.
And the President is hereby authorized and required forthwith on the passage of this act, to issue his proclamation setting forth the provisions of this section, in which proclamation the President is requested to notify all deserters returning within sixty days as aforesaid that they shall be pardoned on condition of returning to their regiments and companies or to such other organizations as they may be assigned to until they shall have served for a period of time equal to their original term of enlistment:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln. President of the United States, do issue this my proclamation, as required by said act, ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper posts; and I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall, within sixty days from the date of this proclamation, viz, on or before the 10th day of May, 1865, return to service or report themselves to a provost-marshal shall be pardoned, on condition that they return to their regiments and companies or to such other organizations as they may be assigned to and serve the remainder of their original terms of enlistment and in addition thereto a period equal to the time lost by desertion.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 11th day of March A.D. 1865, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Lincoln continued to show a generous spirit towards deserters, up to the last day of his consciousness. According to author Graeme Kent, in his 2014 book On the Run: Deserters Through The Ages:
On the penultimate day of his life, April 14, 1865, Lincoln attended a cabinet meeting before having his lunch. On returning to his office he went through a pile of papers and happened upon a proposed pardon for a deserter. Lincoln studied the evidence and signed the pardon, saying, "Well, I think the boy can do us more good above ground than underground."
Meanwhile, back in Washington, Congress was considering what reconstruction of the south would look like following the war. This prompted an editorial in the Shreveport, Louisiana Semi-Weekly News to urge states to send their slaves to fight for the Confederate Army. The author of the editorial wrote "What state will lead in sending the black man to the aid of General Lee?" The writer went on to state "This only alternative is presented. Either we must fight the Yankees with our negroes, or they will take them and hold them as a shield, fighting us with their emancipation proclamation in force. And if there be such a place as hell on earth, then it will be illustrated by our condition."
It was on March 11, 1865 that President Abraham Lincoln issued Proclamation 124 - Offering Pardon to Deserters. Lincoln gave deserters 60 days to return to their posts and serve out the balance of their service, plus any time lost as the result of their desertion. If they did so, they would receive a full pardon for the offence. The proclamation read as follows:
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Whereas the twenty-first section of the act of Congress approved on the 3d instant, entitled "An act to amend the several acts heretofore passed to provide for the enrolling and calling out the national forces and for other purposes," requires "that, in addition to the other lawful penalties of the crime of desertion from the military or naval service, all persons who have deserted the military or naval service of the United States who shall not return to said service or report themselves to a provost-marshal within sixty days after the proclamation hereinafter mentioned shall be deemed and taken to have voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their rights of citizenship and their rights to become citizens, and such deserters shall be forever incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under the United States or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all persons who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and all persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction of the district in which he is enrolled or go beyond the limits of the United States with intent to avoid any draft into the military or naval service duly ordered, shall be liable to the penalties of this section.
And the President is hereby authorized and required forthwith on the passage of this act, to issue his proclamation setting forth the provisions of this section, in which proclamation the President is requested to notify all deserters returning within sixty days as aforesaid that they shall be pardoned on condition of returning to their regiments and companies or to such other organizations as they may be assigned to until they shall have served for a period of time equal to their original term of enlistment:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln. President of the United States, do issue this my proclamation, as required by said act, ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper posts; and I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall, within sixty days from the date of this proclamation, viz, on or before the 10th day of May, 1865, return to service or report themselves to a provost-marshal shall be pardoned, on condition that they return to their regiments and companies or to such other organizations as they may be assigned to and serve the remainder of their original terms of enlistment and in addition thereto a period equal to the time lost by desertion.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 11th day of March A.D. 1865, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Lincoln continued to show a generous spirit towards deserters, up to the last day of his consciousness. According to author Graeme Kent, in his 2014 book On the Run: Deserters Through The Ages:
On the penultimate day of his life, April 14, 1865, Lincoln attended a cabinet meeting before having his lunch. On returning to his office he went through a pile of papers and happened upon a proposed pardon for a deserter. Lincoln studied the evidence and signed the pardon, saying, "Well, I think the boy can do us more good above ground than underground."