Commodore Nutt, publicized "pigmy" accompanied by showman P. T. Barnum, gives command performance at White House. Evening Star (Washington, DC), 17 October 1862, 3d ed., 2:5.

Cabinet meeting again on subject of trade at Norfolk. Welles, Diary.

Lincoln writes to Attorney General Edward Bates and instructs him to "make out and send me a commission for David Davis of Illinois, as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States." Lincoln's friend, Judge Davis, presides over Illinois's Eighth Judicial Circuit. A few days earlier, Lincoln asked Bates to determine whether or not Lincoln could legally appoint Davis to the Supreme Court position while the Senate is in "recess." Bates affirmed Lincoln's "lawful power" to appoint Davis. Edward Bates to Abraham Lincoln, 15 October 1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Abraham Lincoln to Edward Bates, 17 October 1862, CW, 5:465-66.

Gen. Corcoran asks President to give Lt. Morgan Doheny, 42d New York Volunteers, commission in regular army. Abraham Lincoln to Edwin M. Stanton, 17 October 1862, CW, 5:466.

Lincoln thanks author, John F. Callan, for copy of "The Military Laws of the United States." Abraham Lincoln to John F. Callan, 17 October 1862, CW, 5:466.