NOTES

[A] The popular vote was as follows:  Lincoln, 1,857,610; Douglas, 1,291,574; Breckenridge, 850,082; Bell, 646,124.  Of the electoral votes, Lincoln had 180; Breckenridge, 72; Bell, 39; and Douglas, 12.

[B] On the very day of Lincoln’s arrival in Washington, he said to some prominent men who had called upon him at his hotel, “As the country has placed me at the helm of the ship, I’ll try to steer her through.”

[C] This first call for troops was supplemented a month later (May 16) by a call for 42,034 volunteers for three years, for 22,114 officers and men for the regular army, and 18,000 seamen for the navy.

[D] Orpheus C. Kerr (Office Seeker) was the pseudonymn of Robert H. Newell, a popular humorist of the war period, who dealt particularly with the comic aspects of Washington and army life.

[E] Lincoln never lost his interest in exhibitions of physical strength, and involuntarily he always compared its possessor with himself.  On one occasion—­it was in 1859—­he was asked to make an address at the State Fair of Wisconsin, which was held at Milwaukee.  Among the attractions was a “strong man” who went through the usual performance of tossing iron balls and letting them roll back down his arms, lifting heavy weights, etc.  Apparently Lincoln had never seen such a combination of strength and agility before.  He was greatly interested.  Every now and then he gave vent to the ejaculation, “By George!  By George!” After the speech was over, Governor Hoyt introduced him to the athlete; and as Lincoln stood looking down at him from his great height, evidently pondering that one so small could be so strong, he suddenly gave utterance to one of his quaint speeches.  “Why,” he said, “I could lick salt off the top of your hat!”

[F] Hon. George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts stated Lincoln said to him personally:  “When Lee came over the river, I made a resolution that if McClellan drove him back I would send the proclamation after him.  The battle of Antietam was fought Wednesday, and until Saturday I could not find out whether we had gained a victory or lost a battle.  It was then too late to issue the proclamation that day; and the fact is, I fixed it up a little on Sunday, and Monday I let them have it.”

[G] The cause of General Hooker’s seeming stupefaction at the critical point of the Chancellorsville battle has been much discussed but never satisfactorily explained.  It has been thought that he was disabled by the shock of a cannon-ball striking a post or pillar of the house where he had his headquarters.  An interesting entry in Welles’s Diary, made soon after the battle, reflects somewhat the feeling at the time.  “Sumner expresses an absolute want of confidence in Hooker; says he knows him to be a blasphemous wretch; that after crossing the Rappahannock and reaching Centreville, Hooker exultingly exclaimed, ’The