Biden’s ancestor court-martialed for stabbing fellow soldier – WaPo — RT World News
Historical records indicate that the American president's great-grandfather was put behind bars and then pardoned by Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was granted a pardon by one of US President Joe Biden's ancestors after being court-martialed for stabbing a fellow Union Army employee during the Civil War, newly discovered government documents show.
The Washington Post reported Monday that President Lincoln issued the pardon in September 1864, enabling Biden's great-grandfather, Moses Johnson Robinette, to be released from prison and return home to his Maryland plantation. The newspaper said, citing records from the US National Archives, that Robinette was sentenced to two years in prison with hard labor after being convicted on multiple charges stemming from fighting at a Union Army camp in Virginia.
Robinette was working as a veterinary surgeon at the time, caring for horses and mules pulling artillery wagons. The documents revealed that the fight occurred in March 1864, after a wagon conductor objected to a comment Biden's predecessor had made to a cook. Robinette struck the carriage driver, John Alexander, with a knife and failed to convince the jury that he acted in self-defence.
“He caught me and probably would have seriously injured me if I had not resorted to the means I did.” Robinette testified during his trial. Shortly after he began serving his prison sentence near Key West, Florida, three Union Army officers wrote a plea for clemency, saying the surgeon had defended himself against a larger, stronger man. “Under the excitement of the moment.”
Robinette's defenders also argued that he was loyal to the Union cause and opposed the designs of traitors who sought to destroy the government. “Think of his daughters and sons who have no mothers at home.” They added.
U.S. Senator Whitman Wiley, a Republican from West Virginia, recommended the pardon, saying Robinette had been granted “Strict ruling on the case as stated.” After reviewing the case, Lincoln issued an order “A pardon for the unexecuted portion of the sentence.”
Robinette is the grandfather of Mary Elizabeth Robinette, Biden's stepmother. He returned to Allegany County, Maryland after his release from prison and died in 1903. His obituary did not mention his court-martial and praised him as a “hero.” “A man of refined education and accomplishments.”
Historian David Girlman, who wrote the Washington Post article, said the newly discovered records helped “Fill in a little-known piece of Biden family history.” Robinette's trial transcript, which was “imperceptibly compressed” Among hundreds of routine cases before military courts, A. revealed: “The hidden link between the two men – and between two presidents across the centuries” he added.
Fox News said that the White House did not respond to questions related to whether Biden was aware of the stabbing incident against his predecessor and his pardon.
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