"The President and Halleck went down to the Army very privately yesterday leaving here before daylight, and returning the same night." "Castine" [Noah Brooks], Washington, April 20, 1863, in Sacramento Union, May 18, 1863. "The President and the Secretary of War went off on a reconnaissance yesterday, I suppose to Aquia Creek, but returned in the evening. What they did or saw has not transpired." Nicolay to Hay, 20 April 1863, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.