In the letter he says, "I had to stop writing just now to fall in without arms and were reviewed by Abraham Lincoln, the band playing 'Hail to the Chief' when he came and 'Hail Columbia' as he rode away. He looks rather more thin and careworn that when I saw him last before. He rode a splendid dark dapple bay horse but is not the best rider I ever saw by considerable. McDowell was with him and both seemed pleased with our appearance."