The Death Sentence That Turned Into One of Lincoln’s Most Famous Pardons
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, during the Civil War, falling asleep on guard duty was a crime punishable by death. That was the fate awaiting William Scott, a young Union soldier who drifted off at his post one night. His case captured the attention of Abraham Lincoln, who chose mercy over execution. What followed became one of the most remarkable Civil War stories, where compassion and discipline collided in the heat of war.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:14.1 | And we continue with our American stories. |
| 0:18.2 | Up next, a story from Jonathan White, who's a professor of American Studies at Christopher |
| 0:23.9 | Newport University and is a Jack Miller Center fellow. The Jack Miller Center is a nationwide |
| 0:30.1 | network of scholars and teachers dedicated to educating the next generation about America's |
| 0:35.6 | founding principles and history. |
| 0:38.1 | To learn more, visit jack miller center.org. |
| 0:42.3 | Let's take a listen to this story. |
| 0:48.8 | Around 2008, I had the idea to write a history of dreams during the Civil War. |
| 0:54.4 | I wanted to know what sleep was like for Union and Confederate soldiers |
| 0:58.1 | and for the men and women who remained on the home front. |
| 1:01.8 | What did nighttime sound like? How dark was it? |
| 1:05.4 | What did soldiers use for pillows? |
| 1:08.1 | What kept them up at night? And what did they dream about? My book came out in |
| 1:13.3 | 2017 with the University of North Carolina Press. It's called Midnight in America, Darkness, |
| 1:19.8 | Sleep, and Dreams during the Civil War. When I was researching Midnight in America, |
| 1:26.9 | I kept coming across the story of a young soldier from Vermont named William Scott. |
| 1:33.3 | William Scott was 22 years old when he mustered into the third Vermont infantry in July 1861. |
| 1:40.4 | He was a big, awkward country boy with a big heart. |
| 1:44.8 | Within a few weeks of enlisting, Private Scott found himself encamped near Washington, D.C. |
| 1:50.7 | On August 29th, he volunteered to take Pickett duty for his sick friend. |
| 1:55.1 | The next night, he had to serve on Pickett again. |
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