Letter from Abraham Lincoln to Benjamin F. Watson on August 8, 1861 from Washington, D.C.
Written in response to a letter from Watson, Lincoln offers to help reverse an order that replaced Watson as Postmaster of Lawrence, Massachusetts during his service as Major of the 6th Massachusetts Infantry, a 90-day regiment organized in anticipation of the Civil War. Known as the Minutemen of ‘61, the regiment suffered attacks by pro-secession crowds as they marched through Baltimore on their way to garrison Washington, D.C. in April, 1861.
Lincoln, who inadvertently signed the change in Watson’s position, reversed the order giving him back his job.