The Yankees' Secret Weapon

[Steve]

Thanks Darrell! This is so helpful. Yes it is the correct Pvt. Patrick Murphy who was pardoned by Lincoln. It is Adjutant General's Office Order No. 167 dated April 20, 1864. I've included images of the relevant pages of the order for others to see:

First page:

   

Page 3 (first page to mention Murphy):

   

Page 4 (second page to mention Murphy):

   

Page 10 (page that mentions Lincoln's pardon of Murphy):

   

Last page:

   

Here's a link directly to the first page of the order, for people who can't read the above images. Just click the "flip right" button on the bottom to reach the pages I mentioned above with the information about Murphy and the pardon:

https://archive.org/stream/generalorders...4/mode/2up

Since California Civil War service records are available online, I checked Pvt. Murphy's record and he was discharged on October 2, 1864. Here's a link to the National Archives press release on the incident with an image of the original pardon written on the court martial record sent to President Lincoln:

https://www.archives.gov/press/press-rel...11-57.html

A few of interesting postscripts to the tale of Pvt. Patrick Murphy:

1. According to his service record he was born around 1829 in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland.

2. He was actually innocent of the 2nd charge he was convicted on (the one he plead not guilty on), the "Langford" who enlisted in May 1863 in the 6th California Infantry was actually a Henry Langford who never deserted from his unit during the war.

3. After he was discharged, Pvt. Murphy was erroneously placed on the list of deserters again despite his pardon! I don't know if that was a clerical error or a local commander who didn't approve of the pardon.