President attends church service. Benjamin P. Thomas, Abraham Lincoln: A Biography (New York: Knopf, 1952), 271.

At White House feverish excitement but little, if any, alarm. Nathaniel W. Stephenson, Lincoln: An Account of his Personal Life, Especially of its Springs of Action as Revealed and Deepened by the Ordeal of War (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1922), 174; Helm, Mary, 179.

Lincoln spends most of day in telegraph office of War Dept. with members of cabinet and army personnel, analyzing dispatches and studying maps of battlefield. Drops in dozen times during evening and leaves after midnight. Bates, Telegraph Office, 88-92.

From 1:30 to 3:30 P.M. receives dispatches at fifteen-minute intervals from Fairfax Station, three or four miles from battle. [Messages dispatched by Andrew Carnegie, later industrialist and philanthropist.] Nicolay to Bates, 21 July 1861, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Bates, Telegraph Office, 88.

Sen. Sumner (Mass.) at White House twice today. Pierce, Sumner Memoir and Letters, 4:42.

President interviews Gen. Dix. Dix to President, 21 July 1861, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Sen. Zachariah Chandler (Mich.) gives President eyewitness account of Battle of Bull Run, Manassas. Zachariah Chandler: An Outline Sketch of His Life and Public Services (Detroit: Post and Tribune Company, 1880), 211.

Lincoln dines at 3:30 P.M. and goes to War Dept. to discuss with Gen. Scott dispatches that indicate Federal troops are retreating. Scott assures him news is not unfavorable. At 6 P.M. Lincoln drives to Navy Yard and talks with Comdr. Dahlgren. Returns to White House about 7 P.M. and learns from Sec. Seward that battle has been lost. Remains awake all night, listening to stories of senators and congressmen returning from battlefield. "By day-break what had been the Union's hopeful army began streaming past, now only a rain-soaked mob." Bruce, Tools of War, 47-48; Nicolay, Lincoln's Secretary, 109-10; Nicolay to Bates, 21 July 1861, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.