Down memory lane on Presidents' Day

Fort Jefferson

Bet you didn't know President Abraham Lincoln pardoned an ancestor of President Joe Biden. The Washington Post has the story here. Excerpt:

[Joseph] Holt’s report arrived in late August, and Lincoln made his decision, writing, “Pardon for unexecuted part of punishment. A. Lincoln. Sep. 1. 1864.” Shortly thereafter, the War Department issued Special Orders No. 296, freeing [Moses J.] Robinette from prison.

After more than a month on sweltering Dry Tortugas, Robinette returned to his family in Maryland, where he took up farming again. He lived into the 20th century, dying at his daughter’s home in 1903. While his brief obituary eulogized him as a “man of education and gentlemanly attainments,” no mention was made of his wartime court-martial or his fleeting connection to Abraham Lincoln.