Lincoln submits written questions to Gen. Scott about supplying and reinforcing Fort Sumter, S.C. Abraham Lincoln to Winfield Scott, 9 March 1861, CW, 4:279.

Sec. Welles spends about half hour with Lincoln. Welles to wife, 9 March 1861, Gideon Welles Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Lincoln makes brief remarks to delegation from Oregon. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 12 March 1861, 3:3.

Cabinet meeting "upon the State of the Country," meaning Fort Sumter, held at night. Bates, Diary.

Consensus of opinion is that Federal garrison will be evacuated in five days. John S. Tilley, Lincoln Takes Command (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941), 165.

Following White House etiquette, Mrs. Lincoln receives friends in morning. N.Y. Times, 8 March 1861.

[George A. P. Healy's portrait of Buchanan is removed from President's House to rotunda of Capitol. DNA—RG 42 Commissioner of Public Buildings, Letters Sent, Blake to Healy, 9 March 1861.]