At 9 A.M. the President telegraphs Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton: "I approve your Fort-Sumpter [commemoration] programme. . . . I am on the boat, and have no later war news than went to you last-night." Abraham Lincoln to Edwin M. Stanton, 26 March 1865, CW, 8:375.

President is scheduled to start up James River at 11 A.M. Official Records—Armies 1, XLVI, pt. 3, 173.

After breakfast President goes to General Ulysses S. Grant's headquarters. Schedule is planned for him to watch General Philip H. Sheridan's troops cross river at Harrison's Landing, Va., review naval flotilla, and review General Ord's division near Malvern Hill. Party, including President and Mrs. Lincoln and two sons, General and Mrs. Grant, and General and Mrs. Ord, has lunch on Rear Admiral David D. Porter's flagship, the USS Malvern. Takes barge up the James River at 2:30 P.M. and returns. Goes ashore at Aiken's Landing at 3:30 P.M., for review of General Ord's troops. Mrs. Lincoln, unhappy about prominent place occupied by Mrs. Ord on horseback, scolds President, to embarrassment of many. Daily National Republican (Washington, DC), 28 March 1865, 2d ed., 2:5; U.S.S. Malvern, log book, 26 March 1865, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; John S. Barnes, "With Lincoln", 522-24.

At 6:50 P.M., the River Queen proceeds down the James River. Official Records—Armies 1, XLVI, pt. 3, 169.