Does anyone know how this Jonathan J. Coates ties into a Coates family? Clemency for John J. Coats Added by pagan420prince <http://www.ancestry.com/community/member/profile.aspx?cba=pagan420prince> on 6 Apr 2007 South Carolina Marion District We the undersigned citizens of Marion District, understanding that John Coats of Co _ 23 Regt SCV is under sentence of death for desertion confined in prison in Petersburg, Va, with a view to mitigate the death penalty and of recommending the said John Coats to executive clemency, state, that we have long known the said John Coats, and cheerfully bear testimony to his good character __He is an honest, and poor man, with a wife and four or five little children extremely poor dependent on the said Coats__Coats is at the same time a very ignorant uninformed man, we are satisfied that his desertion or rather his absenteeism from the army (for we can not think that though he may be technically guilty of desertion, his crisis cant be classed with those deserters who obstenately persist in refusing to fight) was caused by an ardent desire to see his family__We do not think that he is one that would desert or betray his country__This much is to be said of Coats that in the beginnig of this war he volunteered in the company to which he now belongs__ The undersigned, think this case of Coats is over well deserving of executive clemency so we recommend him G. Berry E. Berry B. Lane Henry Berry S. A. Hargrove, Magst Wm. P. Campbell Sherriff Marion District C. D. Evans W. W. Sellers Thos. C. Moody Clk. of Court 2842 -page 298 chap. 1, Book 198 Rebel Archives Record Division War Department Mil. Justice