January 24 Sunday – William C. Prime wrote to Sam from New York, asking when Sam might be in town to discuss the McClellan book. Prime was representing General George B. McClellan’s widow for publishing the General’s memoirs. [MTP]. Note: Prime also wrote Dec. 31, 1885.

In 1908, Sam dictated this about Prime, who was James Hammond Trumbull’s brother-in law:

Prime was a gushing pietist; religion was his daily tipple; he was always under the influence. Seldom actually & solidly drunk with holiness, but always on the verge of it, always dizzy, boozy, twaddlesome. But there was another & a pleasanter side to him: when he wasn’t praying for himself, when he wasn’t praising God intemperately, he was damning to the nethermost hell three or four men whom he hated with his whole heart, and imploring the Throne of Grace to keep them alive so that he could go on hating & damning them & be happy. Chiefest of these was Mr. Lincoln’s great Secretary of War, Edmund M. Stanton [AD Oct. 31, 1908, MTP].