Lincoln writes an endorsement on a letter concerning Private David Henry Patterson, a member of the 9th New York Cavalry's Company K. On November 2, 1864, Mrs. Kesiah Patterson, of Durand, Illinois, wrote to Fannie McKean, of Washington, D. C., on behalf of David Patterson's mother. On June 11, David Patterson was wounded in battle at Trevilian Station, Virginia. Kesiah Patterson learned from David's mother that he "has been ill almost from the moment of his entering the army. It seems that he has himself physically unable to endure the rigor of camp life...A recent illness deprived him of the little strength and courage that he had endeavored to sustain himself with and now his only hope is to get to his mother and spend the remnant of his life, which he feels will be brief, with her." Kesiah notes that David Patterson is a patient at Finley Hospital, located in Washington D. C.'s fourth ward. Perhaps McKean showed the letter to Lincoln, who forwarded it to Illinois Congressman John F. Farnsworth with the note, "Can Gen. Farnsworth tell anything about this case?" Kesiah Patterson to Fannie McKean, 2 November 1864, The Lincoln Museum, Ft. Wayne, IN; Newel Cheney, History of the Ninth Regiment, New York Volunteer Cavalry. War of 1861 To 1865 (Jamestown, NY: Martin Merz & Son, 1901), 394.