A hastily written note by former US President Abraham Lincoln just two months before his assassination, ordering the release of a disabled 14-year-old boy from the Army, is expected to fetch USD 15,000 at an auction.
The message saying 'Let this boy be discharged', and signed A Lincoln was written after a telegram from Colonel Thomas W Harris about his son, Perry.
It had been in a private collection and was valued at USD 15,000 by Nathan Raab of the Raab Collection, which offered the previously unknown document for sale in Philadelphia.
The letter is considered rare because there are few Lincoln documents relating to children, FoxNews.Com reported.
Lincoln's order came just two months before he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre on April 15, 1865. Ironically, Perry Harris was discharged from the Army the same day.
"It shows the type of person [Lincoln] was and how he was defined by clemency. When you see it's involving a father and his son, it strikes a personal chord and likely did for Lincoln. He was a father of four who lost all but one of his sons," Raab said.
Harris sent his telegram on February 6, 1865, to Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull and General John M Palmer, pleading, "My son Perry Harris 14 years old insane crippled has been mustered in 55th Kentucky regiment. Please have Secretary of War order him discharged. Col Thos W Harris of Shelbyville, Ill."
Perry had enlisted in the Union Army one month earlier without his parents' blessing. The nature of his disability was not clear, but the minimum enlistment age during the Civil War was 18. Many boys, however, lied about their ages to join the army.
