It was a rainy, windy morning in Washington, but the weather cleared in the afternoon.  At 2 PM, a funeral for the president’s son was conducted by Dr. Phineas Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church that the Lincolns attended. “The funeral is a very solemn affair, but it cannot be permitted to interfere overmuch with work.  The burden is increased rather than laid aside,” remembered presidential aide William O. Stoddard.  Benjamin Brown French, Commissioner of Public Buildings wrote that “as soon I had eaten breakfast, I went to the President’s.  I found everything properly arranged for the funeral. The body of little Willie lay in the green room, in the lower shell of a metallic coffin, clothed in the habiliments of life, and covered with beautiful flowers.”  Willie’s body was dressed in his everyday clothes.  Mirrors on the first floor of the White House were rimmed with black cloth.  French wrote:

After looking about the house for a while I walked up into the President’s office and read.  He came up after I had been there about ½ an hour and appeared quite calm and composed.  He talked about his family and about the war.  The servant came in and told him ‘Tad’ desired to see him.  He left immediately for his son’s room.  Gov. Seward came in, and soon after the President returned.  I was sent for to go down and see someone about further preparation & did so.  I did not see Mrs. Lincoln at all.  About noon, The President, Mrs. Lincoln & Robert came down and visited the lost & loved one for the last time, together.  They desired that there should be no spectator of their last sad moments in that house with their dead child & brother.  They remained nearly ½ an hour.  While they were thus engaged there came one of the heaviest storms of rain & wind that has visited this city for years, and the terrible storm without seemed almost in unison with the storm of grief within, for Mrs. Lincoln, I was told, was terribly affected at her loss and almost refused to be comforted.  At two o’clock al were assembled in the East Room.  The President & Robert, all the Cabinet officers; Gen. McClellan; the entire Illinois delegation in Congress; Vice President and Mrs. Hamlin, and a large attendance of persons in official positions, and citizens.  Doctors P.D. Gurley & John C. Smith, conducted the services with great solemnity and propriety and then, followed by a procession in carriages about ½ a mile long, the body was borne to Oak Hill cemetery in Georgetown and temporarily deposited in the tomb of the Chapel, finally to be removed to Illinois.  I returned to the President’s, and then home…

“After the services the body was taken to the cemetery at Georgetown to be deposited in Mr Carroll’s vault, and left, for the time being, in the little chapel in the cemetary,” wrote Illinois Senator Orville H. Browning in his diary. “The President, his son Robert, Senator Trumbull & myself rode out in the Presidents carriage.  After return from Cemetery I brought Emma Home to Mrs Carters to dinner — Found Mrs Col Symington of Pittsburgh there.   After tea I returned to the Presidents and Mrs B & I sat up with Tad till after 2 O’clock in the morning.”  Willie’s body would remain in the Oak Hill cemetery until 1865 when it was disinterred and sent back to Illinois along with President Lincoln’s corpse.

“On Sunday [February 23] Senator Browning of Illinois called and told me it was the desire of the President & Mrs. Lincoln that I should take the entire charge of the funeral arrangements at the White House on the succeeding day, which I promised to do,” reported Commissioner of Buildings Benjamin Brown French.

Orville H. Browning himself reported that he “took Emma to the Presidents with me where she remained all day & night.  In P.M. took the Presidents Carriage and drove out to Georgetown with Mr Carroll to examine his vault which he had offered for the use of the Presidents Son, who is to be deposited there tomorrow.”

“Yesterday at noon was hanged Gordon, convicted of piracy as a slave-trader,” wrote New York lawyer George Templeton Strong of slave trader Nathan Gordon, who had tried to commit suicide before his execution. “ ‘Vere dignum et justum est, dignum et salutare.’  Served him right, and our unprecedented execution of justice on a criminal of this particular class and at this particular time will do us good abroad, perhaps with the pharisaical shop-keepers and bagmen of England itself.  Immense efforts were made to get the man pardoned or his punishment commuted.  Lincoln told me of them last January.  he deserves credit for his firmness.  The Executive has no harder duty, ordinarily, than the denial of mercy and grace asked by wives and friends and philanthropes.  Gordon, poor wretch, made a very pitiful exit.  He went to the gibbet half-dead with a dose of strychnine swallowed with suicidal intent and more than half-drunk with brandy.  The doctors drenched him with stimulants and thus kept life in his body for the law to extinguish in due form.”

“At night I returned to the Presidents and again sat up part of the night with his little son,” wrote Senator Orville H. Browning in his diary.  General George B. McClellan wrote President Lincoln regarding the death of his son Willie: “I have not felt authorized to intrude upon you personally in the midst of the deep distress I know you feel in the sad calamity that has befallen you & your family — yet I cannot refrain from expression to you the since & deep sympathy I feel for you.

You have been a kind true friend to me in the midst of the great cares & difficulties by which we have been surrounded during the past few months — your confidence has upheld when I should otherwise have felt weak.  I wish now only to assure you & your family that I have felt the deepest sympathy in your affliction.
I am pushing to prompt completion the measures of which we have spoken, & I beg that you will not allow military affairs to give you one moment’s trouble — but that you will rest assured that nothing shall be left undone to follow up the successes that have been such an auspicious commencement of our new campaign.

Concern for Lincoln’s youngest son Tad continued; the wife of Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, helped nurse him.

After the death of Willie Lincoln, concern continued over the health of Tad Lincoln. “The Presidents youngest Son is very ill, and they would not consent for Mrs Browning to leave them this morning,” wrote Illinois Senator Orville Browning. “ I remained till 12 Oclock — then came to the Capitol leaving Mrs Browning there   Returned at night and sat up part of night.”  Mrs. Lincoln was inconsolably distraught and Mrs. Browning’s presence was needed to comfort her and nurse Tad.

“The Executive Mansion is in mourning in consequence of the death of the President’s second son ‘Willie,’ a bright little boy of about twelve years, which happened yesterday afternoon,” wrote presidential aide John G. Nicolay.  “He had been very low for a number of days so that his death was not altogether unexpected….”  Another Lincoln aide, William O. Stoddard, wrote: “So, little Willie is dead!  An awful blow to Lincoln!  He was fonder of that boy than he was of anything else.  I remember, away back in Springfield, I’ve seen him – well – I don’t want to say any more – it’s an awful blow to the old man.  Good morning.  I guess I’ll go.  And an old Illinois neighbor walks out, with his head bowed.”

Stoddard wrote: “The President at work in his room to-day?  Why, the coffin is in the house!  So it is; the casket is here, waiting to receive its treasure, while the general now crossing the hall goes into the bereaved father’s office to carry to him the information that the army cannot move, and that the plan of the winter campaign is frustrated by the mud.”

While the First Family grieved, concern about the conduct of the war continued.  Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton wrote General Henry W. Halleck: “Your plan of organization has been transmitted to me by Mr. Scott and strikes me very favorably, but on account of the domestic affliction of the President I have not yet been able to submit it to him.  The brilliant results of the energetic action in the West fills [sic] the Nation with joy.”  President Lincoln has a long conversation with General Benjamin F. Butler about the expedition to capture New Orleans on which Butler is about to embark.  As Butler recalled his meeting at the White House:

“There was understood to be some feeling between General McClellan and the President because McClellan did not move, his excuse being all the while the small number of his troops and the great excess of those of the enemy.  McClellan, however, held everything with a high, strong hand, and what he wanted he had.  The Committee on the Conduct of the War were known to be very much opposed to him, as he certainly was to them.  This fact is now known, but at that time it was only conjectured.  A short time after it became known that I had give my testimony before the committee, General McClellan asked me if I had any objection to telling him what the substance of my testimony was.  I told him that I had not the slightest objection.  I Did not know at that time what his testimony had been, and certainly not what his estimate was, for while in Washington I had been very busy about my own affairs.  He appeared very much surprised at my testimony.  He questioned me as to the source of my knowledge.  I told him that of personal knowledge I knew nothing of course, but I sketched to him how I made up my calculations.  He said that I must be wrong, that he knew that there were a great many more troops than that.  I answered squarely: ‘Well, your knowledge of course ought to be vastly superior to the best verified calculations upon which I have come to my opinion.”
I handed him my analysis of the number of troops which had been in the battle of Bull Run, which number had been substantially verified by actual reports, and then added my further calculations upon the same basis, and made in two different ways, to show that those rebel troops could not have been much more than doubled within the succeeding six moths.  My conclusion was that there were not more than sixty-five thousand effective troops opposite Washington.
The rebel general, Joe Johnston, moved his movement from Washington against them, and Johnston’s report as published in the “War Correspondence” now shows  that I was not five thousand out of the way, not reckoning the small force that was below Alexandria.  But I did not include the “Quaker” guns, i.e. the wooden ones, that were mounted in the rebel intrenchments near Centralville, and McClellan’s bureau of information had evidently included in their estimate the number of men required to man these.  I thought as we parted that General McClellan did not seem quite as cordial as when we met.
When I saw Mr. Lincoln, as I did within less than two days, he put to me the same question as to the number of troops.  I told him that if he would take it without asking my reasons for it I would be glad to tell him, but if he required me to go over the reasons, I must get the paper containing my calculations, or a copy of it.  He said that was not worth while.  I briefly sketched the reasons, and in answer to his questions I replied, in a very emphatic manner, that I felt as certain of my estimate within a few thousand as I could of anything in the world.
“Assuming that you had one hundred thousand effective men in Washington,” he said, “and were permitted to move over the river to attack, would you do it?”
“Certainly I would, Mr. President, and if it was of any use I would ask for the privilege.  But you have abler commanders than I, Mr. President, and what I want is to go off with my command to New Orleans.”
“I won’t say, General, whether I will let you go or not.”
I then began to plead a little and said: “Why not let me go?  You have got enough troops here, and I am only to have some regiments from Baltimore.”
“I agree with you,”he answered, “as to the number of troops we have got here; that is not the reason for your detention.”
I at once pressed for the reason why I was not permitted to go, and thereupon I found that an order had been issued by General McClellan to disembark my troops at Fortress Monroe, and to return them to Baltimore.
I immediately began to look the matter up.  I telegraphed to Fortress Monroe, and was told that no such order had come there.  Adjutant-General Thomas told me that such order certainly had been issued and forwarded by General [John A.] Dix to General Wool, at Fortress Monroe.  I applied to General Dix, and he said that he had sent such an order forward.  Looking farther, I found that one of General Dix’s staff officers had put it in his coat pocket and forgotten it, — a most inconceivable thing. 
I determined to bring the matter to a focus at once.  I went to General McClellan told him about the order and asked him to revoke it.
“Why are you so anxious about this expedition?” he said to me.
“Because I think I can do a great deal for good for the country.  Besides, I want to get away from Washington: I am sick for the intrigues and cross purposes that I find here.  Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton seem to me to be about the only persons who are in dead earnest for a vigorous prosecution of the war.”
“A,” said he, “and what evidence have you of that?”
“What both say and how they say it,— although I do not put too much confidence in what any man says.  The President asked me how many troops I believed there were on the other side of the river, and I gave him the number as I gave it to you.”
“What did he say to that?”
“He asked me how certain I felt, and I told him I felt very certain.  He asked me whether I felt so certain that I would be willing to lead an army of one hundred thousand troops from Washington to make an attack on the rebels in Virginia.”
“What did you say to that?”
“I said I did not desire to have anything to do with the Army of the Potomac; that I wanted to get away from here, and I then renewed my application to him to give me my order to go to New Orleans.”
“He did not give you the order?”
“No; he told me he did not know yet whether he would or not.  I said to him in substance that I hoped he didn’t detain me because it was a necessity to have around Washington the few troops that I should take away from Baltimore.  He said that was not the reason, that regarding the number of troops opposed to us across the river he believed nearly as I did.  He told me that I might call any day after to-morrow, being the 22d of February and a made to-morrow.’  He said: ‘Well, General Butler, I think you had better call on me the day after to-morrow, and we will see what will come out of this.’”
I looked General McClellan in the eye and said: “General, shall I call on you before or after I call on the President?”
“Better come before,” said he.
I went to my hotel, and after listening to an address in the House, I spent the next day in packing up my effects, not many, because I had come to the conclusion that I was going somewhere.  I also notified two of the gentlemen of my staff who came with me, and two more who were in Washington, that I wanted them ready to go with me at a day’s notice.
On the morrow I took a carriage and drove to the headquarters of the army shortly before ten o’clock. I was admitted to the general’s presence, and he met me very cordially, and handed me a sealed envelope.
“Therein,” said he, “you will find your instructions about your expedition to New Orleans, and you may go as soon as you can get ready to so do.”
“I thank you very much, General,” said I, “for the relief you have given me in letting me go away from here.  I will endeavor by my actions to do you and the army all the credit I can.”
I called on the Secretary of War, and found the President with him.  I stated to them the facts.  Mr. Stanton was overjoyed.  The President did not appear at all elated, but shook hands with me with a far-off, pensive look.
“I shall need some funds undoubtedly,” I said to Mr. Stanton.  “Please ascertain how much and send to me by the quartermaster and commissary, who will follow me and bring whatever it is supposed I will need.”
“Why not take your requisition yourself?”
“In the first place, I do not want any charge of the money.  In the second place, Mr. Stanton, to be honest with you, my orders cannot be countermanded after I get to sea, for I am going to take New Orleans or you will never see me again.”
“Well,” said he in the presence of Mr. Lincoln, “you take New Orleans and you shall be lieutenant-general.”
I bowed and left.
I stayed in Washington long enough to have a little bird sing to me that General McClellan’s father-in-law and chief of staff, R.B. Marcy, had said: “I guess we have found a hole to bury this Yankee elephant in.”

About 5 P.M., the Lincoln’s beloved son Willie succumbed to typhoid after an illness of more than two weeks. Attorney General Edward Bates write: “A fine boy of 11 yrs., too much idolized by his parents.”   The president considered Willie to be the son who most emulated and resembled him.

“The same routine to-day – the President very much worn and exhausted,” wrote presidential aide John G. Nicolay. “At about five o’clock this afternoon I was lying half asleep on the sofa in my office when his entrance roused me.   ‘Well, Nicolay,’ said he, choking with emotion, ‘my boy is gone — he is actually gone!’ and, bursting into tears, turned and went into his own office.”  Nicolay wrote that Illinois Senator Orville H. “Browning came in soon after, bringing some enrolled bills from the Senate, to whom I told the news of Willie’s death.  He went and saw Mrs. Lincoln and promised at once to bring Mrs. Browning,” who had only arrived in Washington two days earlier.   The Brownings had known the Lincolns for about 25 years.  Nicolay wrote: “Later I went to see the Prest, who had lain down to quiet T[ad], and asked him if should charge Browning with the direction of the funeral. ‘Consult with Browning,’ said he.”

Slavetrader Nathaniel Gordon was hanged in New York.   According to Attorney General Edward Bates, a firm proponent of Gordon’s execution,  “Recd. From the Prest. a package – letter from Judge Dean and some other Docs – urging the commutation of Gordon’s sentence.  I ansd him hastily, but decidedly – advising him to decline to interpose any farther, to stop the course of law, in the case of Nathaniel Gordon.”

New York political boss Thurlow Weed visits the White House after getting a telegram from a presidential aide the previous day.  Weed went to Washington were he dined with Secretary of State William H. Seward.   According to historian Glyndon Van Deusen, “Lincoln explained that there was urgent need for $15,000 and that this money could not be taken from any available appropriation.   Could Weed raise the amount?”   Weed could and did, but he never found out the reason the money was needed.”

“The Prest’s 2d son, Willie, has lingered on for a week or 10 day[s], and is now thought to be in extremis[.] The Prest. is nearly worn out, with grief and watching,” wrote Attorney General Edward Bates in his diary.   President aide John G. Nicolay recorded in his journal: “Willie continues to sink and grow weaker and the President evidently despairs of his recovery.”  Presidential aide William O. Stoddard wrote of this period:

Day follows day, and the shadow deepens, and some who understand its meaning go about as if they did not wish to make a noise in walking.
“Is there no hope?” is the question which has to be asked at last.
“Not any.  So the doctors say.  But the President is in his room over there.  You can send your card in, Mr. Senator, if you wish to see him.  I’ve no doubt he will see you.”
“See him?  Send my card in, at such a time?  God help him! Seems to me he had enough to carry without this.  I won’t add a feather.”  And the kindly hearted Senator stalks out of the northeast room almost as if he had been insulted.

Death was also on the president’s mind regarding the upcoming execution of a convicted slave-tradier. Bates wrote: “Two weeks ago, I warned the Prest. against granting a respite to Nath[anie]l Gordon, under sentence of death, for Piracy (slave trade),”

“It is the first conviction under the act, and nothing shewn to impeach the legality or justice of the conviction.  I was convinced (and told the Prest: so) that the reprieve wd. be taken as an implied promise of pardon or commutation, however strongly he might asserverate to the contrary [.]
“And now, my prediction is verified.  Mrs. White (wife of Judge White of N.Y.) with the mother and wife of Gordon, are here urging both the Prest. and me to commute the sentence to imprisonment for life.
“My ground of objection is that the Prest. has no right to stop the course of law, except on grounds of excuse or mitigation found in the case itself – and not to arrest the execution of the statute merely because he thinks the law wrong or too severe.  That would be to set himself above Congress, to assume the dispensing power, and to commit the very offense which lost one king of the House of Stuart his head, and another his crown.

Even as the Army of the Potomac remained stalled, victories in the West gave hope some comfort.   The ever-optimistic William O. Stoddard one of the handful of aides that assisted Lincoln during the Civil War, wrote: “The victories achieved by the Union forces, by land and water, are of value, not only for their direct bearing upon the military success of this prolonged campaign, but also because they set the Government and its war policy in the true light before the people.  The long delay, the careful preparation, the patient waiting for ‘the inevitable hour,’ are all at last vindicated; and the dullest can see that the President and his advisers have been right, and those who assailed them wrong.”

Stoddard argued that the victories show that there was a Lincoln Administration plan for prosecuting the war: “Sketched in outline long ago by the trained and experienced genius of Scott; completed in its details by the President, and the wise men who have been his councillors; and carried into triumphant effect by the skill, daring and perseverance of our generals and our citizen soldiery.”

According to another presidential aide, John G. Nicolay, President Lincoln placed great faith in the fighting capabilities of his fellow Illinois residents:  “Talking over the surrender, and the gallant behavior of the Ills. Troops, the Prest said: ‘I cannot speak so confidently about the fighting qualities of the Eastern men, or what are called Yankees – not knowing myself particularly to whom the appellation belongs – but this I do know – if the Southerners think that man for man they are better than our Illinois men, or western men generally, they will discover themselves in a grievous mistake.’”

President Lincoln was delighted by news that Fort Donelson had surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant.   Three Confederate generals were also captured.  White House aide William O. Stoddard wrote overoptimistically: “The gallant dash of our gunboat fleet up the Tennessee and into Alabama, has struck a panic to the very heart of the rebellion, and the Stars and Stripes have been spread in a region where many men feared they would never shine again.”  Attorney General Bates wrote that Commodore Andrew H. “Foote did wonders, with the iron gun boats – He recd. 2 wounds, but nothing very serious.  The boats did excellent service.”

Lincoln wrote General Henry W. Halleck, commander of Union armies in the region, to urge a greater follow-up to this victory: “You have Fort Donelson safe, unless Grant shall be overwhelmed from outside, to prevent which latter will, I think, require all the vigilance, energy, and skill of yourself & Buell, acting in full co-operation, Columbus will not get at Grant, but the… force from Bowling-Green will.  They hold the Railroad from Bowling-Green to within a few miles of Donelson, with the Bridge at Clarksburg [Clarksville] undisturbed.  It is unsafe to rely that they will not dare to expose Nashville to Buell.  A small part of their force can retire slowly towards Nashville, breaking up the Railroad as they go, and keep Buell out of that city twenty days.  Mean time Nashville will be abundantly defended by forces from all South & perhaps from here at Manassas.  Could not a cavalry force from Gen. [George] Thomas on the upper Cumberland, dash across, almost unresisted, and cut the Railroad at or near Knoxville, Tenn.?  In the midst of a bombardment at Donnelson, why could not a Gunboat run up and destroy the Bridge at Clarksburg [Clarksville]?  Our success or failure at Donelson is vastly important; and I beg you to put your soul in the effort.”

“The President will be pleased to see yourself and other members of the Committee [on the Conduct of the War] at 8 o’clock this evening, agreeably to the request contained in your note of yesterday,” presidential aide John G. Nicolay notified Ohio Senator Benjamin F. Wade.  The committee – as was the president– very concerned about the slow progress of General George B. McClellan in initiating an offensive with the Army of the Potomac.

It may have been this meeting that another aide, William O. Stoddard, was referring to when he wrote: “President Lincoln, with a high opinion of McClellan’s abilities, at last decided that he was not sufficiently incisive for a great commander; that he lacked the striking power.  To illustrate this, one day a committee of some sort called on him to urge their complaints against the General in Chief, and he replied nearly in these words: ‘Well, gentlemen, for the organization of an army – to prepare it for the field – and for some other things, I will back General McClellan against any general of modern times – I don’t know but of ancient times either – but I begin to believe that he will never get ready to fight.”