As the tale goes, Moses J. Robinette operated a hotel in Virginia — now West Virginia — when the U.S. Civil War broke out in 1861. The hotel was destroyed, Robinette's wife Jane died, and Robinette fled with his children to Maryland. There, he wound up working for the Union Army not as an enlisted soldier, but as a civilian taking care of ammunition and pack animals. Gerleman says his duties with pack animals extended to "veterinary surgeon" despite not having any medical training.
The night the two men came to blows, Robinette, 42 at the time, pulled a knife and cut Alexander several times before their fight got broken up. The charges against Robinette claimed that he'd been drunk and had caused "a dangerous quarrel," per The Washington Post. Robinette, meanwhile, claimed that he'd acted in self-defense and that Alexander, "possibly might have injured me seriously had I not resorted to the means I did." Ultimately, Robinette was convicted in a military court on all charges except attempted murder.
Later on, three army officers spoke up to defend Robinette, claiming that he'd acted "under the impulse of the excitement of the moment" to protect himself from a person "superior in strength and size" per Gerleman. A West Virginia senator received their petition and passed it along to Lincoln's secretary, who gave it to Lincoln, who issued a pardon for Robinette on September 1, 1864. This wasn't highly unusual. Lincoln issued more than 300 pardons during his presidency, including for war crimes, civil crimes, and even attempted bestiality, per The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
