Lincoln acknowledges receipt of petition from people of East Tennessee presented by John M. Fleming and Robert Morrow: "The Secretary of War , Gen. Halleck, Gen. Burnside, and Gen. Rosecrans are all engaged now in an effort to relieve your section." Abraham Lincoln to John M. Fleming and Robert Morrow, 9 August 1863, CW, 6:373-74.

President Lincoln writes to General Ulysses S. Grant and lobbies for the recruitment of black soldiers. Lincoln writes, "Gen. [Lorenzo] Thomas has gone again to the Mississippi Valley, with the view of raising colored troops. I have no reason to doubt that you are doing what you reasonably can upon the same subject. I believe it is a resource which, if vigorously applied now, will soon close the contest. It works doubly, weakening the enemy and strengthening us." Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant, 9 August 1863, CW, 6:374-75.

In company of John Hay visits new studio of Alexander and James Gardner, corner of 7th and D Sts., over Shephard and Riley's Bookstore, and poses for several photographs. Frederick H. Meserve and Carl Sandburg, The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1944), 9 August 1863.