FITZ-JOHN
PORTER. Autograph
Letter Signed to Major C. C. Sniffen, New York [NY], 22 September 1886.
1 page, 11” x 8½”, on his Commissioner of Police
stationery.
An intriguing
letter from Fitz-John Porter, the Union general who was court-martialed
in 1863 for disobeying orders during the second battle of Bull Run.
He spent the next sixteen years seeking a retrial, and when it was held
in 1879, he was found innocent of the charges. However, it was not until
the month before he wrote this letter that Porter was finally reinstated
in the army with the rank of colonel and placed on the retired list.
At this
date, Porter was serving as Commissioner of New York City’s Police
Department, and he writes here to a military acquaintance about a different
controversy – that surrounding the execution of Mary Surratt.
In 1865, Surratt was one of eight persons whom a military commission
found guilty of conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Although
a majority of the commission recommended life imprisonment for her rather
than death, President Andrew Johnson signed the order of execution and
Surratt was hanged. Johnson later contended that he never saw the commission’s
plea for clemency.
Porter
first explains that he plans to call on his correspondent the next day
about noon. “In the mean time let me ask you to think over
what you may bring to mind in relation to the fact whether or not President
Johnson ever saw the recommendation to mercy for Mrs. Surratt,”
he requests. “I presume you have seen the article on Secy.
Stanton in the Journal of the Military Service Institute, in which it
is alleged that President Johnson acknowledged that he had seen it prior
to approval of the sentence. My reasons for asking this I will give
you when I call,” Porter enigmatically concludes.
Porter’s
interest may have stemmed from the fact that some of the same individuals
were involved in both his court-martial and in the Surratt trial. General
David Hunter, for example, presided at both proceedings. The Judge Advocate
General of the army, Joseph Holt, oversaw Porter’s court-martial
and also prosecuted those charged with Lincoln’s assassination.
Edwin Stanton was Secretary of War during both proceedings.
The letter
is written on Porter’s “Commissioner’s Office
Police Department of the City of New York” stationery. He
has marked it “Personal” at the top.
The letter
is neatly inlaid, has one old repair on the verso, and has light offsetting
of the ink where previously folded. It is however, clearly legible and
in very good condition overall. $650.00
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