Lincoln meets with a committee of the Baltimore Soldiers' Relief Association regarding payment of sick and disabled soldiers. Asked committee to put requests in writing for his consideration. President writes to Surgeon General William A. Hammond seeking answers regarding soldiers' medical care. Lincoln explains, "A Baltimore Committee call on me this morning saying that City is full of straggling soldiers half sick, half well, who profess to have been turned from the hospitals with no definite directions where to go. Is this true? Are men turned from the hospitals without knowing where to go." Abraham Lincoln to William A. Hammond, 18 October 1862, CW, 5:467; National Republican (Washington, DC), 20 October 1862, 3:1.

Lincoln joins Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in General Henry W. Halleck's office to examine Confederate dispatch purchased in England. Investigation reveals forgery. Welles, Diary.