President interviews Charles D. Chase regarding business interest in South and gives him letter to Gen. Foster at Hilton Head, S.C. Abraham Lincoln to John G. Foster, 28 December 1864, CW, 8:186-87.

Receives two ladies, relatives of James R. Mallory, under death sentence, and suspends execution for six weeks. Johnson to Lincoln, 3 December 1864, Edwin M. Stanton Papers, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

Sec. Welles calls on President, "who had a large crowd in attendance, chiefly female." Welles, Diary.

President writes Gen. Butler: "If the people [Eastern Shore Virginia] on their own motion wish to hold a peaceful meeting I suppose you need not to hinder them." Abraham Lincoln to Benjamin F. Butler, 28 December 1864, CW, 8:186.

Telegraphs Gen. Grant at City Point, Va.: "If there be no objection, please tell me what you now understand of the Wilmington expedition, present & prospective." [Grant reported the expedition "a gross and culpable failure."] Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant, 28 December 1864, CW, 8:187.