President takes cruise around Hampton Roads in revenue cutter Miami. Holds conference at Fortress Monroe, Va., and decides to send force against Norfolk under General Wool. Reads from Shakespeare to Colonel Cannon during day. At dinner converses with Wool about plan to take Norfolk. Wool remarks: "If you stay here 48 hours, I will present Norfolk to you." Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton use tugboat in searching for possible landing places whence to begin march on Norfolk. About 2 P.M. crosses to place selected for landing, about one mile below Fort Wool, Va. Lincoln goes ashore. Returns to Fortress Monroe where troops are embarking. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 12 May 1862, 2d ed., 2:2-3, 3:5; Boston Advertiser, 12 May 1862; Chester D. Bradley, "President Lincoln's Campaign against the Merrimac," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 51 (Spring 1958):80-83; LeGrand B. Cannon, Personal Reminiscences of the Rebellion, 1861-1866 (New York: Burr Print. House, 1895), 157-59, 172-75; William E. Baringer, "On Enemy Soil: President Lincoln's Norfolk Campaign," Abraham Lincoln Quarterly 7 (March 1952):18, 25.

President assists Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in framing dispatch to General George B. McClellan relating to army corps, and writes directly: "Do the Commanders of Corps disobey your orders in anything? . . . are you strong enough, even with my help—to set your foot upon the necks of Sumner, Heintzelman, and Keyes all at once?" Abraham Lincoln to George B. McClellan, 9 May 1862, CW, 5:207-8; Abraham Lincoln to George B. McClellan, 9 May 1862, CW, 5:208-9.

[Gen. Hunter, commanding Dept. of South, issues General Orders No. 11 freeing slaves in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, without informing President. (See May 19, 1862.) Proclamation Revoking General Hunter's Order of Military Emancipation of May 9, 1862, 19 May 1862, CW, 5:222-24.]