From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Alcorn Collection. Letter from Owen McGarr to Mississippi Governor James L. Alcorn's Private Secretary H. F. Hewson, requesting that Mississippi Governor James L. Alcorn review the Marion Coleman case and asking that the Governor issue a pardon for Coleman thereafter.

From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Governor Alcorn Collection. Letter from Owen McGarr at Vicksburg, Mississippi, to R. J. Mathews, concerning the Minor Coleman case tried before Judge Shackelford. McGarr states that the district attorney and most of the jury that convicted Coleman had subsequently signed a petition to have him pardoned during the summer of 1868, but for some reason then-Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames had not acted upon said petition. McGarr goes on to make a plea for Coleman to receive a pardon from Mississippi Governor James L. Alcorn.