President interviews Col. Joseph N. G. Whistler, who wants his son to go to West Point. Abraham Lincoln to Edwin M. Stanton, 20 August 1864, CW, 7:509.

President Lincoln telegraphs Brigadier General John F. Miller and "[s]uspend[s] . . . [the] death sentence" of fifteen-year-old Private Patrick Jones, of the 12th Tennessee Cavalry. Tennessee's Military Governor Andrew Johnson telegraphed Lincoln and recommended a commutation to a life sentence. Johnson notes that at the time that Jones committed the murder, he "was drunk." Johnson argues, "[T]he moral influence would be much greater if we could hang some of the larger fish . . . [T]here is no trouble in convicting & hanging the little helpless minnows which makes & leaves no impression upon the public mind." Andrew Johnson to Abraham Lincoln, 19 August 1864, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Abraham Lincoln to John F. Miller, 20 August 1864, CW, 7:509.

Receives 151st Ohio Regiment, en route home after completing 100 days of service. Washington Chronicle, 21 August 1864.