Mrs. Emilie Todd Helm, Mary Lincoln’s half sister.

President Abraham Lincoln announced a grant of amnesty for
Emilie Todd Helm (above), his wife Mary Lincoln’s half sister
and the widow of a Confederate general. The pardon was one
of the first under Lincoln’s Proclamation of Amnesty and
Reconstruction, which he had announced less than a week
before. The plan was Lincoln’s blueprint for the reintegration
of the South into the Union. Part of the plan allowed for former
Confederates to be granted amnesty if they took an oath to the
United States. The option was open to all but the highest
officials of the Confederacy.