An amusing instance of the President’s preoccupation of mind occurred
at one of his levees, when he was shaking hands with a host of visitors
passing him in a continuous stream.
An intimate acquaintance received the usual conventional hand-shake and
salutation, but perceiving that he was not recognized, kept his ground
instead of moving on, and spoke again, when the President, roused to
a dim consciousness that something unusual had happened, perceived
who stood before him, and, seizing his friend’s hand, shook it again
heartily, saying:
“How do you do? How do you do? Excuse me for not noticing you. I was
thinking of a man down South.”
“The man down South” was General W. T. Sherman, then on his march to the
sea.