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Summary: General Ward Burnett sent a former New York state senator to speak to Lincoln about Burnett’s nomination to a brigadier generalship. Lincoln responded with this letter. “Col. Diven has just been with me seeking to remove a wrong impression which he supposes I might have of you, springing from a report he had once made in the New York Senate... I told him, as I now tell you, that I did not remember to have ever heard of the report, or any thing against you As I remember...the nomination fell, with many others because the number nominated exceeded the law. I call to mind no reason why you have not been re-nominated, except that you have not been in active service, while others more than sufficient to take the position have been.” Abraham Lincoln. Autograph Letter Signed, March 7, 1863, to Gen. Ward B. Burnett. With: Edwin M. Stanton. Letter Signed, June 20, 1863,
to New York Mayor George Opdyke. Inventory# 21369 $34,000 Historical Background:
Burnett, a West Point graduate, had served with distinction under Winfield Scott during the Mexican War, and was seriously wounded at Churubusco. He was awarded a gold medal by his regiment, and was also presented with a gold snuff box that had earlier been given to Andrew Jackson from the City of New York for his 1815 defense of New Orleans. Burnett spent the years between the Mexican and Civil Wars as a civil engineer engaged on the construction of the dry docks at the navy yards at Brooklyn and Philadelphia. The same week Lincoln penned this letter, he signed the first federal military draft. Lincoln’s letter is accompanied by a June 20, 1863 letter from the Secretary of War. Stanton refuses the mayor of New York’s request that “such power be given to General Ward B. Burnett, to muster men into the United States service.” Although he never received a regular army commission, three weeks later General Burnett played a significant role during the violent Draft Riots in New York City. Near Wall Street, Burnett organized and swore in volunteer forces. According to William O. Stoddard, an aide to Lincoln who happened to be in New York during the riots, they “kept company with a wide-mouthed mountain howitzer” and protected the U.S. Treasury and the Customs House.
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