President directs secretary of war to keep in front of Washington corps of either Gen. McDowell or Gen. Sumner, and to send corps not kept to Gen. McClellan who will commence forward movement from new base at once. Abraham Lincoln to Edwin M. Stanton, 3 April 1862, CW, 5:179.

Writes Gen. Meigs: "I do not personally know Capt. [Asher R.] Eddy [of Rhode Island], so as to be able to ask a personal favor for him: yet I protest now, as heretofore, that my asking to have him relieved from duty . . . shall, to no extent, be set down to his disadvantage." Abraham Lincoln to Montgomery C. Meigs, 3 April 1862, CW, 5:178.