Holding a plaid Scotch cap, Lincoln stands on the battlefield at Antietam, which is littered with Union dead and wounded. He instructs his friend Marshal Lamon, who stands with his back toward the viewer and his hand over his face, to "sing us ‘Picayune Butler,’ or something else that’s funny." The Scotch cap is a reference to erroneous newspaper reports about the disguise that Lincoln was wearing when he attempted to escape from possible assassins on his way to the 1861 inauguration. "Picayune Butler" probably refers to a parody song about Union General Benjamin Butler’s controversial command of New Orleans. In contrast to Lincoln, Democratic presidential nominee General George B. McClellan (right foreground) gives aid and comfort to a fallen Union soldier.