President promises Mrs. James E. Dunawin that application for pardon of husband will have attention of attorney general. Abraham Lincoln to Edward Bates, 20 April 1863, CW, 6:180.

Issues proclamation admitting West Virginia into Union. Proclamation Admitting West Virginia into the Union, 20 April 1863, CW, 6:181; Evening Star (Washington, DC), 21 April 1863, 2d ed., 2:3.

Delphy Carlin, of St. Louis, sees President and asks that son be so employed as to avoid facing in battle his brother in Confederate army. Carlin to Lincoln, 21 April 1863, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

President Lincoln gives a "full and unconditional pardon" to John Cunningham, who is serving eight years in prison after a Washington, D. C. court "convicted [him] on two indictments for assault with intent to kill." Lincoln notes that Cunningham "was but eighteen" when he committed the crime, and "his widowed mother is in distress for want of his supporting care." Further, "the inspectors of the penitentiary, the Mayor of Washington, and other citizens have petitioned me in his behalf." Pardon of John Cunningham, 20 April 1863, The Lincoln Museum, Ft. Wayne, IN.