In morning Lincoln reviews Colonel John F. Farnsworth's 8th Illinois Cavalry regiment in front of the portico of the Executive Mansion, each company "cheering heartily" as they pass before the President. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 18 October 1861, 3:6.

At cabinet meeting President reads draft of letter to General Winfield Scott acceding to Scott's retirement. Bates, Diary.

President converses at length with B. Rush Plumley, "a scatter-brained zealot that teaches negros in Loua.," whom he regards as "one of the rascals around Fremont." Plumley to Chase, 19 October 1861, Salmon P. Chase Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Bates, Diary, 30 July 1864.

Lincoln orders that one hundred workmen continue work to place iron castings in place for United States Capitol dome; all other work on the extension of the Capitol ceases. National Republican (Washington, DC), 19 October 1861, 3:1.

Writes Gen. Thomas W. Sherman: "Your dispatch of yesterday received and shown to General McClellan. I have promised him to not break his army here without his consent." Abraham Lincoln to Thomas W. Sherman, 18 October 1861, CW, 4:557.

In mid-afternoon, President and Mrs. Lincoln, accompanied by General Robert Anderson, travel to the encampment of the Second and Fourth Rhode Island regiments, where Lincoln participates in the presentation of flags from California to the regiments. National Republican (Washington, DC), 19 October 1861, 2:3.