Anxious as he was for the Army of the Potomac to return to the field, President Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by General Henry Halleck and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, in mid-April 1863 took a one day trip to Aquia Creek to confer with General Joseph Hooker on his upcoming campaign.
The trip was carried out in secrecy; spies could not be allowed to warn Robert E. Lee of Hooker’s plans. A week after Lincoln’s visit, on April 27, the Army of the Potomac began to move, marching from Falmouth up the Rappahannock toward the fords over the river.
Lincoln, who had earlier expressed concerns over the slowness of the Union cavalry to disrupt Confederate communications, wrote Hooker, pleading “How does it look now?” But it was too early to know.