President Lincoln Approves the Controversial Dismissal of General Fitz-John Porter

January 21, 1863

President Lincoln approves the controversial dismissal of General Fitz-John Porter from the army following a military investigation of his actions the previous summer: “The foregoing proceedings, findings, and sentence in the foregoing case of Major-General Fitz-John Porter, are approved and confirmed; and it is ordered that the said Fitz-John Porter be, and he hereby is, cashiered and dismissed from the service of the United States as a Major General of Volunteers, and as Colonel and Brevet Brigadier in Regular Service of the United States, and forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit under the Government of the United States.

General Henry W. Halleck writes General Ulysses S. Grant: “It may be proper to give you some explanation of the revocation of your order expelling all Jews from your department.  The President has no objection to your expelling traitors and Jew peddlers, which, I suppose, was the subject of your order; but, as it in terms proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks, the President deemed it necessary to revoke it.”

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