At cabinet meeting President asks secretaries for opinions on relative merits of five-foot gauge railroad as opposed to four-foot-one-and-a-half-inch gauge. Order Establishing Gauge of Union Pacific Railroad, 21 January 1863, CW, 6:68.

Transmits to Senate report regarding exportation of articles of contraband for use of French army in Mexico. Abraham Lincoln to the Senate, 20 January 1863, CW, 6:66-67.

Receives request from Gov. Yates (Ill.) for appointment of Col. William Ross as bearer of dispatches so that he may go to Europe for eye operation. Yates to Lincoln, 20 January 1863, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Army of Potomac on march. Blizzard sweeps country. Lincoln in White House hears frozen crystals beat on windows of office. Monaghan, Diplomat, 279.

Deplores distress of people in southwest Missouri and informs Samuel T. Glover, prominent Unionist, that Congress would oppose extension of railroad to Springfield, Mo. Abraham Lincoln to Samuel T. Glover, 20 January 1863, CW, 6:66.