JANUARY 7, 1864:
President
Lincoln (U.S.A.) and President Davis (C.S.A.) both pardon two young deserters
from their respective armies, commuting the men’s death sentences to terms of
imprisonment. The two Presidents, who had been born months apart in adjoining
counties in Kentucky, both shared a horror of sending frightened young men to
stand in front of firing squads, and pardoned or commuted the sentences of many
a young man despite the objections of their field commanders, who felt that
pardons and commutations undermined military discipline.
Caleb Blood Smith, President Lincoln’s former Secretary of
The Interior and now a Federal Judge, dies at age 55 in Indianapolis. Smith was
an unpopular Secretary, described as a man with "neither heart nor
sincerity about him." As Secretary of The Interior he had been chiefly
responsible for Indian Affairs, and the disastrous Sioux War of 1862 had
erupted on his watch, ultimately forcing him from office.
