LINCOLN ATTEMPTS A PRISONER EXCHANGE FOR SURGEON JOHN MCGREGOR.
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. 1809-1865. Autograph Document Signed ('A. Lincoln'), an order seeking a rebel prisoner to exchange on behalf of Union soldier Dr. John McGregor, 1 p, ink on paper, on Executive Mansion letterhead, Washington, June 10, 1862, folds reinforced to verso, some separation repaired.

LINCOLN SEEKS A PRISONER EXCHANGE FOR ONE OF THE EARLY UNION HEROES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Surgeon Dr. John McGregor joined the 3rd Connecticut Regiment of Volunteers on May 14, 1861. During the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, in a house near the battlefield, he established a field hospital from which he tended to the wounded. According to a letter to McGregor's father from Major Alexander Warner, 'When the retreat was ordered, I rode up to the hospital. The doctor came to the door, all besmeared with blood. I told him that a retreat was ordered, and, for his own safety, he had better leave at once. He asked me if there was any preparation for removing the wounded men. I told him there was not. He then turned and went into the hospital. As he turned, he said, 'Major, I cannot leave the wounded men, and I shall stay with them, and let the result follow.' That was the last time I saw him....' (published The Life and Deeds of Dr. John McGregor,' pp 39-40).

When the hospital was surrounded, McGregor was taken prisoner, an account of which is given in the Life and Deeds, written by his father. The prison system was brutal, and by spring of 1862, he writes, 'I was very much broken down' (Life and Deeds, p 59). Transferred to the prison at Salisbury, where 'Food was very scarce, and disease was sending many of the prisoners out of hearing of the clamor of men... (ibid., p 59),' McGregor had nearly lost hope. Finally, he was deposited on the banks of the James river, destitute and left to die. 'Hope on, hope ever,' he thought, and remembered the story of Elijah being fed by the ravens. As he lay there, the sun sinking behind the hills, he was saved by an African American man who stealthily deposited a basket of cakes, and hastened away. Revived, he was able to make his way to a landing and a steam ship, and was taken back across Union lines.

An extraordinary relic of Civil War heroism, revealing that McGregor's faith in his government and his country was not misplaced. See Jeremiah McGregor, The Life and Deeds of Dr. John McGregor, Foster, 1886.
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