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Documents Show Lincoln Merciful in Court-Martials
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- A curator at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield says newly donated research shows the former president often showed mercy to men being court-martialed during the Civil War.

James Cornelius is the curator of the Lincoln Collection at the library. He says the research shows Lincoln often tried to reduce a man's sentence if he was of lower rank, but usually was harsh on higher-ranking officers.

Researcher Thomas Lowry and his wife, Beverly Lowry, of Woodbridge, Va., donated photocopies of the records and their own summaries of the cases to the museum. They found the documents -- some previously unseen -- during the 10 years they spent at the National Archives examining court-martial files from the Civil War period.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
08 06 10 by Newsroom
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