gravure exécutée en 1901

dimensions toute la feuille 27x17 cm 

Document authentique et original du XXe siècle

Edmund Louis Gray Zalinski, (December 13, 1849 – March 11, 1909) was a Polish-born American soldier, military engineer and inventor. Zalinski was born to a Jewish family in Kórnik, Prussian Poland on December 13, 1849, and emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1853. He began school in Seneca Falls, New York and attended high school in Syracuse until 1863, when he dropped out at the age of 15. Lying about his age, Zalinski enlisted in the United States Army, and served during the American Civil War as aide-de-camp on the staff of General Nelson A. Miles from October 1864. In February 1865, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Second New York Heavy Artillery Regiment, having been recommended for promotion for gallant and meritorious conduct at the Battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia. He continued on General Miles's staff until the surrender of General Robert E. Lee in April 1865. Zalinski was mustered out of the volunteer service in September 1865 and was recommended for an appointment in the regular army. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Fifth United States Artillery on February 23, 1866. He was promoted to first lieutenant in January 1867, and finally to captain on December 9, 1887. In 1867, Lieutenant Zalinski served with the 5th Artillery at the Fort Jefferson military prison, located in the Dry Tortugas islands of the Gulf of Mexico, about 70 miles west of Key West, Florida, and 90 miles north of Havana, Cuba. Four of the prisoners there were Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlen, and Edwin Spangler, who had all been found guilty in the 1865 Lincoln assassination trial. During an 1867 yellow fever epidemic at Fort Jefferson, Dr. Mudd was credited with saving the lives of many of those at the fort. Lieutenant Zalinski authored a petition to President Andrew Johnson, signed by 300 of the soldiers at the fort, to free Dr. Mudd for his heroic service during the epidemic. President Johnson pardoned Dr. Mudd in 1869, citing Lieutenant Zalinski's petition as one of the reasons.