This is quite a story about the Lincoln-Biden connection and to read it on Presidents Day!
'Documents reveal Abraham Lincoln pardoned Biden’s great-great-grandfather'
'By David J. Gerleman is a 19th-century historian, Lincoln scholar and history instructor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.'
'President Biden’s Oval Office boasts both a portrait and a bust of Abraham Lincoln. But his family’s connection to the 16th president extends far beyond workplace ornamentation.'
'It dates to a late-night brawl during the Civil War.'
'On the evening of March 21, 1864, the quiet of a small corner of the Army of the Potomac’s sprawling winter camp along the Rappahannock River near Beverly Ford, Va., was disturbed when a fight broke out in one of the mess tents between Union Army civilian employees Moses J. Robinette and John J. Alexander.'
'The scuffle left Alexander bleeding from knife wounds, and Robinette was charged with attempted murder and incarcerated on a remote island near modern-day Florida. It would also cause an unexpected intersection in the histories of two American presidents, Lincoln and Biden — a story that has waited 160 years to be told.'
'Robinette, who received a pardon from Lincoln, was Biden’s great-great-grandfather.
Joseph Robinette Biden’s ancestral line has long been established and lists Moses J. Robinette among his paternal ancestors hailing from western Maryland, but very little has ever been chronicled about the man. Robinette’s court-martial records, discovered at the National Archives in Washington, show how the current president’s story is intertwined with that of the man who was president at the most perilous junction in U.S. history.'
'In 1861, Robinette was 42, married and running a hotel near the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad junction at Grafton, Va. Union sentiments ran high in Virginia’s mountainous western counties, which soon broke off to form the new state of West Virginia. As the nation lurched toward armed conflict that spring, smoldering resentments against Virginia’s politically dominant slaveholding elite flared into open defiance after northwestern delegates tried to block the secession movement and were expelled from the Virginia Convention.'
'Western Virginia became an early battleground as both sides fought to control the railroad. Union troops occupied Grafton in mid-June 1861 and drove Confederate forces out of the region within six months. The Robinette family suffered setbacks in the war’s early years: Moses’s wife, Jane, died, and his hotel was destroyed, allegedly by Union soldiers. Seeking safety for his youngest surviving children, Robinette appears to have left Virginia and returned to his extended family in Allegany County, Md.'
'Robinette was hired as a civilian veterinary surgeon by the U.S. Army Quartermaster’s Department in late 1862 or early 1863. He was assigned to the Army of the Potomac’s reserve artillery and tasked with keeping healthy the horses and mules that pulled the ammunition wagons. His qualifications for the position, as someone without formal medical training, were unstated, but such an appointment was not unusual in Civil War armies. Few veterinary colleges existed outside Europe in the 19th century, and Congress refused to authorize the creation of an official army veterinary corps until the First World War.'
'On that March evening near Beverly Ford, Alexander, a brigade wagon master, overheard Robinette saying something about him to the female cook and rushed into the mess shanty to demand an explanation. Tempers flared, expletives followed, and Robinette drew his pocketknife. A brief scuffle left Alexander bleeding from several cuts before camp watchmen arrived to arrest Robinette.'
'Nearly a month passed before Robinette’s military trial began. The charges specified that he had become intoxicated and incited “a dangerous quarrel,” violating good order and military discipline. Because a drawn weapon was involved, assault with “attempt to kill” was included among the charges.'
'Witnesses described Robinette as “full of fun, always lively and joking,” and testimony varied on whether either man had consumed alcohol before the fight broke out.'
'According to the trial transcript, Robinette stated in closing “that whatever I have done was done in self defence, that I had no malice towards Mr. Alexander before or since. He grabbed me and possibly might have injured me seriously had I not resorted to the means that I did.” (WAPO) Thank you to subscriber, Pete Hall, for providing the GIFTED link below. It is his gift to all of us!
Yes, this letter got me to thinking: what a great course for high schoolers, a course on the Civil War combined with sessions of critical thinking processes used to dissect, explain and understand what was going on, being said, and the reasons/implications/inferences for them.
Today, still, I see pundits pondering the make-up of Trump supporters. That issue was laid to rest, IMO, by Profs. David Norman Smith and Eric Hanley of the Univ. of Kansas in their study entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" You can google it. Or, click here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0896920517740615
This is quite a story about the Lincoln-Biden connection and to read it on Presidents Day!
'Documents reveal Abraham Lincoln pardoned Biden’s great-great-grandfather'
'By David J. Gerleman is a 19th-century historian, Lincoln scholar and history instructor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.'
'President Biden’s Oval Office boasts both a portrait and a bust of Abraham Lincoln. But his family’s connection to the 16th president extends far beyond workplace ornamentation.'
'It dates to a late-night brawl during the Civil War.'
'On the evening of March 21, 1864, the quiet of a small corner of the Army of the Potomac’s sprawling winter camp along the Rappahannock River near Beverly Ford, Va., was disturbed when a fight broke out in one of the mess tents between Union Army civilian employees Moses J. Robinette and John J. Alexander.'
'The scuffle left Alexander bleeding from knife wounds, and Robinette was charged with attempted murder and incarcerated on a remote island near modern-day Florida. It would also cause an unexpected intersection in the histories of two American presidents, Lincoln and Biden — a story that has waited 160 years to be told.'
'Robinette, who received a pardon from Lincoln, was Biden’s great-great-grandfather.
Joseph Robinette Biden’s ancestral line has long been established and lists Moses J. Robinette among his paternal ancestors hailing from western Maryland, but very little has ever been chronicled about the man. Robinette’s court-martial records, discovered at the National Archives in Washington, show how the current president’s story is intertwined with that of the man who was president at the most perilous junction in U.S. history.'
'In 1861, Robinette was 42, married and running a hotel near the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad junction at Grafton, Va. Union sentiments ran high in Virginia’s mountainous western counties, which soon broke off to form the new state of West Virginia. As the nation lurched toward armed conflict that spring, smoldering resentments against Virginia’s politically dominant slaveholding elite flared into open defiance after northwestern delegates tried to block the secession movement and were expelled from the Virginia Convention.'
'Western Virginia became an early battleground as both sides fought to control the railroad. Union troops occupied Grafton in mid-June 1861 and drove Confederate forces out of the region within six months. The Robinette family suffered setbacks in the war’s early years: Moses’s wife, Jane, died, and his hotel was destroyed, allegedly by Union soldiers. Seeking safety for his youngest surviving children, Robinette appears to have left Virginia and returned to his extended family in Allegany County, Md.'
'Robinette was hired as a civilian veterinary surgeon by the U.S. Army Quartermaster’s Department in late 1862 or early 1863. He was assigned to the Army of the Potomac’s reserve artillery and tasked with keeping healthy the horses and mules that pulled the ammunition wagons. His qualifications for the position, as someone without formal medical training, were unstated, but such an appointment was not unusual in Civil War armies. Few veterinary colleges existed outside Europe in the 19th century, and Congress refused to authorize the creation of an official army veterinary corps until the First World War.'
'On that March evening near Beverly Ford, Alexander, a brigade wagon master, overheard Robinette saying something about him to the female cook and rushed into the mess shanty to demand an explanation. Tempers flared, expletives followed, and Robinette drew his pocketknife. A brief scuffle left Alexander bleeding from several cuts before camp watchmen arrived to arrest Robinette.'
'Nearly a month passed before Robinette’s military trial began. The charges specified that he had become intoxicated and incited “a dangerous quarrel,” violating good order and military discipline. Because a drawn weapon was involved, assault with “attempt to kill” was included among the charges.'
'Witnesses described Robinette as “full of fun, always lively and joking,” and testimony varied on whether either man had consumed alcohol before the fight broke out.'
'According to the trial transcript, Robinette stated in closing “that whatever I have done was done in self defence, that I had no malice towards Mr. Alexander before or since. He grabbed me and possibly might have injured me seriously had I not resorted to the means that I did.” (WAPO) Thank you to subscriber, Pete Hall, for providing the GIFTED link below. It is his gift to all of us!
https://wapo.st/3T7b68o
Yes, this letter got me to thinking: what a great course for high schoolers, a course on the Civil War combined with sessions of critical thinking processes used to dissect, explain and understand what was going on, being said, and the reasons/implications/inferences for them.
Today, still, I see pundits pondering the make-up of Trump supporters. That issue was laid to rest, IMO, by Profs. David Norman Smith and Eric Hanley of the Univ. of Kansas in their study entitled "The Anger Games: Who Voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Election, and Why?" You can google it. Or, click here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0896920517740615
As usual, Richard, thank you for your critical thinking and generosity. I will open the link later in the day. Salud!
Here is the article without the paywall.
https://wapo.st/3T7b68o
Pete Hall, thank you for your thoughtful generosity. I hope that you will not mind
my copying and pasting the link within the comment and crediting you for your
gift to us all.
Not necessary, Fern. Please feel free to use that URL.
Thank you for your kind consideration, Pete.