geekyHon. Secretary of War: I begin to feel that I ought to be at home, and yet I dislike to leave without seeing nearer to the end of General Grant's present movement. He has now been out since yesterday morning, and although he has not been diverted from his programme, no considerable effect has yet been produced, so far as we know here.
Stanton encouraged the president to remain at City Point, responding in a telegram the following day "I hope you will stay to see it out, or for a few days at least."
On March 30th, Secretary of State William H. Seward arrived at City Point.
On one of the days when Lincoln was at City Point, he spent five hours visiting soldiers at the army field hospital. Author David Herbert Donald describes the visit in his 1995 biography Lincoln at page 572:
Lincoln visited the army field hospital where for more than five hours he moved from tent to tent, greeting each patient, pausing at the bedside of the seriously ill or wounded, and making a point of shaking hands with the hospitalized Confederates.
He had very little time for relaxation and his "very careworn and fatigued appearance" reappeared whenever he let his guard down. In particular, Mary reported, he found that the visit to the hospital, "although a labor of love to him, fatigued him very much." But the cheers of the troops that he reviewed and the demonstrations of the sailors on the vessels that he passed in the James River were exhilarating and he gained strength from the scent of coming victory.