President visits War Dept. telegraph office early in morning and sends congratulations to Gen. Thomas. Bates, Telegraph Office, 319; Abraham Lincoln to George H. Thomas, 16 December 1864, CW, 8:169.

Receives committee from Freedmen's Aid Society of Baltimore. Townsend to Lincoln, 14 December 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Introduces new attorney general, James Speed, at cabinet meeting. Welles, Diary.