Joe Biden and Abraham Lincoln have a 160-year-old connection. Here’s what it is

Abraham Lincoln and Joe Biden share an intriguing historical connection that spans over a century.

According to newly released documents, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, pardoned Joe Biden’s great-great-grandfather following a late-night brawl during the Civil War era. Here’s what we know about it.

Civil war link between Abraham Lincoln and Joe Biden

The trial of Moses J Robinette, US president Joe Biden’s great-great-grandfather, is described in court-martial records held at the US National Archives and reported by the Washington Post.

He was charged with attempted murder following a late-night altercation with John J Alexander, a fellow civilian employee of the Union Army, on 21 March, 1864, at the Army of the Potomac’s winter camp in Virginia, when Alexander overheard him saying something about him to a cook, and rushed at him.

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The two men scuffled, and Robinette drew his pocketknife, leaving Alexander with several cuts before others intervened, according to the documents.

The 42-year-old, who had been hired by the army as a veterinary surgeon, insisted that Alexander “possibly might have injured me seriously had I not resorted to the means I did.”

But military judges convicted him and sentenced him to two years’ hard labour.

Three army officers petitioned Abraham Lincoln to overturn his conviction, claiming the sentence was unduly harsh and that Robinette had been defending himself against someone “much his superior in strength and size.”

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Abraham Lincoln agreed, and signed the pardon on 1 September that same year.

Revealed after 160 years

The story “has waited 160 years to be told,” according to the Washington Post article, written by historian David J Gerleman.

The “slender sheaf of 22 well-preserved pages of his trial transcript, unobtrusively squeezed among many hundreds of other routine court-martial cases in the National Archives, reveals the hidden link between the two men — and between two presidents across the centuries,” Gerleman wrote.

“Those few pages not only fill in an unknown piece of Biden family history, but also serve as a reminder of just how many Civil War stories have yet to be told.”

With inputs from AFP