CAMPAIGNS THIS MONTH:

MAJOR BATTLES THIS MONTH:

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FEBRUARY 1:

• Texas secedes from the union/1861
• President Jefferson Davis appoints General Edmund Kirby Smith to the command of the Trans-Mississippi Department/1863
  

FEBRUARY 2:

• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Commodorre Andrew Foote signals for the offensive to begin and moves forward up the Tennessee River with his gunboats and troop transports, moving soldiers that Grant will command. Meanwhile, General P.G.T. Beauregard, ordered to report to Albert Sidney Johnston and take command of the Army at Columbus, Kentucky, today leaves Centreville, Virginia on a Westward-bound train/1862 
• William Clarke Quantrill, symbol of union resistance in Missouri, skirmishes with Captain W.S. Oliver, 7th Missouri Infantry, near Blue Springs in Jackson County, Missouri. Oliver's company disperses Quantrill's 18-20, and Oliver reports Quantrill's loss of 6 killed, 1 wounded, 6 or 7 wagon loads of pork, a quantity of tobacco, recovered a stagecoach and two horses. He does not mention his loss/1862
•  [CAMPAIGN FOR VICKSBURG] Grant cuts the levee at Yazoo Pass, Mississippi, to open a passage for gunboats to reach the rear of Vicksburg/1863
  
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] P.G.T. Beauregard, Head of the Western Military Operations, meets with D.H. Hill and Gustavus Smith at Green's Cut Station near Augusta to plan defense of South Carolina. Meanwhile Confederate troops push across the Salkehatchie River and River's Bridge--only undestroyed bridge which is commanded by McLaw's Artillery. The 63rd Ohio is sent across and routed. They do not reach the Confederate side/1865 

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FEBRUARY 3:

• J.E. Johnston is born/1807 
• The C.S.S. ALABAMA gives chase after breakfast to a sail and at 1:30pm comes up with and captures the PALMETTO of New York. Confiscating needed provisions, the PALMETTO is set fire at sunset/1863 
• The Hampton Roads Peace Conference fails to end the war because lincoln will listen to no talk of Southern Independence/1865
•  [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] Near the Salkehatchie River, South Carolina, the 63rd Ohio builds a road to flank out the Patriots/1865 

FEBRUARY 4:

• The seceded states open a convention in Montgomery, Alabama/1861 
• Virginians vote for delegates to a state convention to discuss Secession/1861 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Commodore Foote's fleet of gunboats anchors six miles north of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River/1862 
• The C.S.S. ALABAMA heads due east to weather toward Cape St. Roque in Brazil/1863 
• Many peace rumours are flying in Virgginia. One says the Confederate Peace Commissioners have been received in Washington with the rejoicing of Peace. Another is that France and England have recognized the Confederacy and have declared war on the United States. Still another rumour states that lincoln and the US Congress have recognized the independence of the Confederacy and North and South will unite against Maximillian in Mexico to uphold the Monroe Doctrine/1865

FEBRUARY 5:

• In Montgomery, the delegates debate in convention and decide to draft a provisional and permanent Constitution, elect a provisional President and Vice President/1861 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Commodore Foote inspects his fleet and prays for success; General Beauregard arrives at Bowling Green, Kentucky to report to A.S. Johnston and take charge of the Confederate Army at Columbus./1862 
• President Davis' Cabinet discusses having a newspaper in Richmond that would defend the government, but the ENQUIRER could not be purchased and the DISPATCH wanted conditions in return for supporting the President/1862 
• THE INDEX, Southern newspapter of England, today quotes the London TIMES that the Emancipation "Proclamation by the confessing of its authors was intended to do two things--first to conciliate European opinion, and secondly to terrify the South into submission. That the first object has not been attained we think is pretty clear, and the other, which is by far more important, has been equally missed." The English are not the fools the chief ignoramous of the lincoln administration thinks they are/1863 
• Captain William H. Chapman of Mosby's Command, scouting in the Valley with 14 men, attacks a party of 15 federal cavalry between Millwood and Berryville, killing 3, capturing 3, and 4 horses, the balance escaping/1864

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FEBRUARY 6:

• James Ewell Brown Stuart born, 1833. 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] L. Tilghman and 100 Southern Patriots surrender Fort Henry on the Tennessee River to 15,000 union troops under Commodore A.H. Foote and U.S. Grant. Losses: US-47, CS-96. While inspecting troops at Bowling Green, A.S. Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard receive news that Tilghman's Confederates have surrendered Fort Henry after an hour's bombardment. Johnston and Beauregard in council, decide to concentrate at Nashville and if necessary, retreat through Stevenson, Alabama, reuniting somewhere along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad with West Tennessee brigades. Hardee, with an army at Bowling Green, is ordered to retire east of the Cumberland River. Buckner and Floyd are ordered from Hopkinsville and Russelville over the Clarksville Bridge. A.S. Johnston doesn't even think of fighting at Fort Donelson/1862 
• Congress passes a law and Presidentt Davis signs the bill requiring one half of the cargo space on ships to be reserved for Government use to support the War effort and also authorizes the President to control all blockade running and thus monopolize foreign trade/1864
•  General Robert E. Lee becomes General-in-chief of Southern forces/1865 
• Brigadier General John Pegram is killed at Hatcher's Run, Virginia/1865

FEBRUARY 7:

• The Honourable Judah Philip Benjamin is appointed Secretary of State/1862 
• Federals steam into Croatan Sound, North Carolina, and deploys artillery and 10,000 troops on Roanoke Island/1862 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Albert Sidney Johnston orders a retreat from southwestern Kentucky/1862 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] federal army camps on the Charleston-Augusta Railroad/1865

FEBRUARY 8:

• Delegates to the Convention in Montgomery adopt a provisional Constitution, and a provisional Confederacy officially comes into existence/1861 
• The Confederacy receives a $500,000 loan from Louisiana. The money came from the New Orleans mint and the United States Customs office/1861 
• 12,000 union troops under L.M. Goldsbrough and Ambrose Burnside capture Roanoke Island and 3000 Confederates under Henry Wise, many who are unarmed. Losses: US-264, CS-2582/1862

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FEBRUARY 9:

• Jefferson Davis and Alexander Hamilton Stephens are elected Provisional President and Vice President of the Confederacy. The individuals selected are at the moment unaware of the honor/1861 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest, after bringing up the rear of retreat from Hopkinsville to Clarksbille and being detached to report to General Pillow at Dover, Kentucky, arrives today on the east bank of the Cumberland River/1862
•  President Jefferson Davis appoints General Edmund Kirby Smith to the command of the Trans-Mississippi Department/1863 
• The C.S.S. ALABAMA reaches the Comoro Islands not far from Africa and anchors at Johanna/1864 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINASS] XVII Corps crosses the Edisto River and is 3 1/2 miles south of Orangeburg, South Carolina/1865

FEBRUARY 10:

• Senator Barksdale of Mississippi introduces a bill into Congress to arm the servile population/1865 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] sherman the Hun finishes tearing up the Charleston-Augusta Railroad/1865

FEBRUARY 11:

• His Excellency, the Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Hamilton Stephens is born/1812 
• The Honourable Alexander H. Stephens is inaugurated Provisional Vice President of the Confederate States of America/1861 
• His Excellency Jefferson Davis leaves his Mississippi plantation Brierfield to accept the call of the Southern people to the Presidency of the Southern Confederacy/1861 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] After a reconnaissance toward Fort Henry, Colonel N.B. Forrest predicts to his superior, General Pillow, that Grant would make an early forward movement. Simon Bolivar Buckner is dispatched by John B. Floyd to Dover, Kentucky, to bring out his own brigade to Cumberland City, but Pillow refuses to let it go. A series of telegrams between A.S. Johnston, Floyd, and Pillow, does not help. Pillow wants to concentrate at Donelson. Floyd argues with his lieutenant (Pillow) until time runs out to do anything else but concentrate there/1862 
• The INDEX, Southern voice in London, prints an article outlining the views of the newly formed Society for the Cessation of Hostilities headed by F.W. Tremlett, a London Anglican minister, and advised and assisted by Matthew Fontaine Maury who has been sent abroad since 1863 as a Confederate naval agent. This purely English club deplores the calamities, physical destruction, loss of life in the war; and declares that the United States cannot restore the union by force; and purposes itself to use all available clergy and ministers to put all moral pressure possible on the people and governments of England and the United States to restore peace to the American continent/1864 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] sherman resumes a northward march. The Battle of Aiken, South Carolina, won by the Patriots; Joseph Wheeler drives Kilpatrick's cavalry from the streets. Kilpatrick leads the retreat hatless. Hardee is ordered to evacuate Charleston and retreat to Chester, South Carolina/1865

FEBRUARY 12:

• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Grant moves against Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in two columns--one under C.F. Smith on the upper road, and the other under McClernand, on the lower road, with his division and a brigade of Smith's. Together the federals number 15,000 men. An additional 10,000 reenforcements under D.C. Buell are expected under the escort of Foote's flotilla. The columns move ten miles without the slightest opposition, but are stopped in the last two miles. Forrest moves forward in observation, and with 1300 men, runs into the enemy. Becoming acting Brigadier General, Forrest dismounts his men taking an oblique position sweeping the road. here the enemy is halted. Forrest's steady fire drives their cavalry back on a body of infantry, checks a flank movement, and harrasses the advance so badly as to hold Grant's whole army of 15,000 in check for several hours. Buckner then orders Forrest back to his entrenchments and Grant begins to spread his infantry and artillery around the Confederates/1862 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAAS] federals capture Orangeburg, South Carolina, and half of the town is burned/1865

FEBRUARY 13:

• The Confederate State Department resolves to send commissioners to Washington, Britain, France, and other parts of Europe to secure recognition for the Confederacy/1861 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] By dawn, Grant has finished placing his infantry and artillery around the Patriots, and he brings up Wallace's battalion from Fort Henry to finish surrounding the Confederate left. Floyd arrives at Fort Donelson with a small brigade, concentrating all the nearby Confederate forces in Grant's bag around Dover, Kentucky. Flag Officer Foote brings up his gunboats to attack the Southern water batteries. Buckner commands the right, Pillow the left, and Colonel Heinmen the center which is a hill cut off by low land on the left and right around Indian Creek which divides about the hill, meeting again to flow into the Cumberland River. The stream is swollen this time of year, making communication among the Confederate command difficult. McClernand between 11 and 12 o'clock charges the hill with four regiments. Marry's battery pours hot lead into them, but they keep coming until Heiman's men open fire on them. Then they retreat permanently. The gunboat CONESTOGA steams within range of the water batteries and opens a cannonade. After firing 150 shots into the Confederate batteries, she withdraws with a 128 pound bolt in her engine room. This afternoon it snows, turning to sleet with a sharp north wind. The enemy boats arrive during the night with Buell's 10,000 fresh reinforcements. The Confederates dig trenches/1862 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] sherman demolishes a rail depot and two miles of track south of Orangeburg/1865

FEBRUARY 14:

• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] The Confederate commanders decide that because of the reinforcement of the federals and the gunboats, to reopen and excape to Nashville by a sally in the afternoon on the enemy's right. Floyd, instead of attacking, waits and watches. Grant strengthens. The gunboats open fire on the water batteries--four ironclads, two wooden. One of the two Confederate long range guns accidentally is spiked. Foote becomes reckless and puts his ironclads- -two on the east bank, and two on the west bank--300 yards from the water batteries. The gunners are elated. Now their short range 11 pounders can be used! A solid shot passes through the pilot hous of the flagship and carries away the wheel. The ST. LOUIS, out of control, drifts with the current, its pilot dead. The LOUISVILLE's pilot is wounded. A 128 lb. shell smashes the anchor of the CARONDOLET, then jumped over the vessel with part of the smokestack! Next goes the CARONDOLET's flag-staff and chimney. Falg Officer Foote watches his flotilla turn into a lot of aimless logs. The Confederates effectively repulse the river fleet. The planned 4:00pm sally is postponed by Floyd after conferring with Pillow. They decide to wait until morning. The brigade and regimental officers attend a council in the evening. At the council of war, Floyd, the commander, is alarmed. The repulse of the gunboats do not relieve his mind. He looks for a greater fleet the following day and is anxious to reestablish land communication with Nashville. Floyd believes his army is a sacrifice for A.S. Johnston's safe retirement to Nashville. Pillow is ordered to assault the union right and retake the Nashville road. Buckner, when Pillow has developed his attack, is to strike the bluecoat center and assist in the attack on the federal right. Colonel Head, with 450 men, is to hold Buckner's abandoned rifle pits. Then Buckner would become a rearguard. Colonel Forrest is to hold the extreme Confederate left and protect against flanking movement and assist in the general attack./1862 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] sherman continues toward Columbia, South Carolina/1865

FEBRUARY 15:

• [SEIGE OF FORT SUMTER] Confederate higgh command resolves to take Fort Sumter at Charleston and Fort Pickens in Florida by force if necessary/1861 
• Raphael Semmes resigns from the United States Navy to defend his state of Alabama/1861 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] This morning, Grant has 20,000 bluecoats about Fort Donelson and Dover, Kentucky, with 7000 more on transports and on the march. The Confederates concentrate in front of Oglesby's brigade of McClernand's division. At 5:00am, Patriot musketfire begins and soon after the Patriots hit simultaneously McArthur's left and Oglesby's right. Confederate Gideon Pillow and Bushrod Johnson surge forward to form an escape route to Nashville, but they are victorious and decide to hold the fort. McArthur cannot hold on his left and rear and withdraws by Oglesby's right. Therefore, Oglesby retreats and so does everyone down the line. The federals rally and hold fast a second line. A counterattack is smashed by Bushrod Johnson at 9:30am. The enemy right is in full retreat. Oglesby leaves 836 dead and wounded Illinoisians as he flees. Lew Wallace orders Cruft's brigade and the federal 25th Kentucky to mistakenly fire on the men she is sent to support, and McClernand's line crumbles. A panic is in the air, but the Confederates will not attack for fear of ambush. A general federal retreat ensues as N.B. Forrest silences a last defiant federal battery. Buckner comes out of the rifle pits to attack Grant and hold for the retreat to Nashville. The way to Nashville is opened, but instead at 2:00pm, Pillow orders his own and Buckner's brigades back to the rifle pits. No one knows why Pillow did this. He carried the answer to the grave. He had no authority to order troops; the authority was Floyd's. Floyd decides to sally forward again in the morning/1862 
• The North Carolina delegation in Congress asks the President to withdraw North Carolina troops from the army to come home to protect the Eastern Shore. President Davis tells them that for all the states to withdraw their troops to protect their borders would not give the country an image of a Confederacy/1862 
• Confederate Congress, after observing the atrocities committed by the lincoln administration having the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, today prudently passes a law taking the authority away from the President to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in the Confederacy/1864 
• The ALABAMA gets under way from the Comoro Islands heading southwest/1864 
• The Honourable General John Cabell Breckinridge is appointed Secretary of War/1865 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] sherman's army encamps at Harrell's Branch, 8 1/2 miles south of Columbia. In a skirmish at Congaree Creek by 2:30pm Logan has outflanked the Confederate forces. After dark, Southrons shell Hazen's yankee camp. The left wing corps bivouacks at Lexington, South Carolina, 20 miles west of Columbia. Kilpatrick leaves Lexington in flames--the town no longer exists. Columbia is put under martial law/1865

FEBRUARY 16:

• Jefferson Davis arrives in Montgomery by train from his plantation Brierfield in Mississippi to accept the call of the Southern people to the Presidency/1861 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Between one and two o'clock this morning, another council of war is called at Fort Donelson--John B.Floyd, Gideon Pillow, and Simon Bolivar Buckner. Scout reports say that Grant has a line of armed men invested to attack the Patriots. Buckner and Floyd decide there is no way of escape. Pillow wants to fight their way out or wait until the boats carrying the wounded could return and ferry the command to Clarkville. Forrest offers that the cavalry cut the way out and lead. This they do not hear because Floyd is too busy arguing with Buckner and Pillow. The three finally decide that surrender is in order. But Floyd asks that because of reasons known only to himself, that he be allowed to withdraw with the Virginia troops. Pillow says that there are no two men the yankees would more want to have than Floyd and himself, and he asks to be dismissed with Floyd. The only responsible one of the triumvirate, Buckner, agrees to let them go if they will leave before negotiations with the enemy begin. Colonel Forrest refuses to surrender if even one man will follow him out. Within an hour, Pillow is gone, Floyd has left on a riverboat with his Virginia command, and 1500 troopers, artillerymen, and infantry follow Colonel N.B. Forrest out of Donelson. Forrest discovers that the "men" seen by Floyd's scouts is a picket fence. It is too late to notify the responsible Buckner. The doom of the Confederates in the fort is sealed. Grant takes the victory, the 21,000 man army and the fort. Thus, Fort Donelson falls to 27,000 union troops. Losses: US-2832, CS-16,623. Floyd, meanwhile, is put in charge of Nashville which is now mob ruled at the fear of federal seizure. Floyd, ordered to bring off the supplies, irresponsibly marches off to Murfreesboro on the rumor of Grant's approach dropping the command of Nashville on the shoulders of N.B. Forrest. The mob is stifled, and the city comes to order in a few hours after Forrest rides in, beating the mob leader over ther head with a pistol and turning ice-cold water from a fire engine on the crowd. He soon restores the mayor and council to order. He will work continually for three days and nights restoring Nashville to order/1862
•  [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] sherman's army concentrates on the Congaree River's left bank. Pandemonium reigns as refugees flee Columbia to Charlotte and the military moves off stores. Beauregard and Hampton meet in Columbia; Hampton orders a surrender of Columbia. Woods ferries across the Broad River without mishap. The XV Corps fight above Columbia on a hill near the Broad River in the Battle of Columbia/1865

FEBRUARY 17:

• Federals led by a man named John Cornwell who Captain Walter E. Frankland, formerly John S. Mosby's Quartermaster had once despatched to Charlottesville with a wagon to bring ammunition. When Cornwell came back, Frankland would not allow Cornwell's list of expenses. Cornwell appealed to Mosby who backed Frankland. Cornwell then went to Warrenton, campsite of Gregg's Cavalry Division and told Gregg he would guide him through "Mosby's Confederacy" and capture the whole command. Tonight at 10:30pm, they leave Warrenton to search houses for "Mosby's Men."/1864 
• President Davis signs a law for employment of free Negroes and slaves by the army to be used as teamsters, cooks, servants in hospitals, and labourers on fortifications up to 20,000 to be obtained from masters voluntarily offering their services, but if not enough offered, then impressment may be done of up to 1 in 5 of the master's servants/1864 
• The C.S.Submarine H.L. HUNLEY under command of Lieutenant George E. Dixon, sinks the USS HOUSATONIC at Charleston Harbour and goes down with her. The HUNLEY is a submarine between 30 and 40 feet long, composed of boilerplate, and 4 to 5 feet in diameter, slips out of Breach Inlet at Charleston and heads for the sloop U.S.S. HOUSATONIC Moving by a human-powered propeller, only her top bulb hatches show as she moves stealthily toward the enemy blockader. A little after 9:00pm Master Crosby, deck officer of the HOUSATONIC, sees a "log" coming toward the ship, and orders action stations. But it is too late. The "log" crashes into the ship. A muffled explosion, like that of a 12-lb. howitzer causes a severe shock; timber soars as high as the mizzenmast head; and a smoke column soon rises from the federal ship. The spar deck, or upper deck crumbles and falls away from the ship; the engines stop; and in no time the HOUSATONIC is under thirty feet of water. A pyrrhic victory, all but 5 of the federal sailors live by climbing up the masts as the HOUSATONIC sinks. However, the Confederate submarine is never heard of again--the whole crew of the HUNLEY is drowned. Battery Marshall, guarding Breach Inlet, has put out lights to guide the HUNLEY safely home, but the submarine never comes back. General P.G.T. Beauregard later puts out an order commending the HUNLEY's crew and gives them up for lost/1864
  
• Congress, struggling to help alleviate a dire financial crisis for the government, enacts an ad valorem tax on all land, property, real and personal (slaves), 5%, and jewelry and articles of luxury, 10%. Congress also enacts a law requiring outstanding treasury notes to be exchanged for 20 year bonds at 4% or for new notes of 1/3 lower denominatin payable two years after the end of the war. An additional loan of $500,000,000 was authorized to be made in thirty year bonds bearing 6% interest. Congress authorizes the hiring of free blacks as nurses, cooks, and lengthens the draft age. President Davis signs the Secret Service bill/1864 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] In South Carolina, a gloomy day dawns. As the Confederate troops inside Fort Sumter evacuate and Charleston as a whole is silently abandoned, Confederate troops withdraw from Columbia along the Winnsboro and Camden roads. Mayor Goodwin of Columbia at 10:00am surrenders the City to sherman's forces. The XVII Corps is the first to enter Columbia. They loot stores, drink liquor in the streets, fire wildly into crowds, release all convicts from the city jail, and at least abet the Burning of Columbia. Sometime before noon, sherman the Hun himself enters the city. The citizens not having left Columbia see first hand the truth in the MACON TELEGRAPH's fall 1864 declaration that sherman is "a ravisher, incendiary, and thief." From the federal troops we hear: "Hail, Columbia, happy land/If I don't burn you, I'll be damned." One yankee soldier, seeing smoke rise in the city says, "Now you will catch hell--that is the signal for a general setting of fire to the city." Admiral Raphael Semmes wrote of the conflagration, "Neither Alaric nor Atilla ever left such a scene of havoc and desolation in his rear. Demoniac Yankee Hate had been added to the thirst for plunder. [Destruction] was the character of the war our 'brethren' of the North--God save the mark--were making upon us." A soldier in the 103rd Illinois will write home in several weeks, "Several of them [Confederate newspapers] assert that our treatment of the citizens is good. Don't believe a word of it . . ." YANKEE: We mean to destroy all your food. SOUTH CAROLINIAN: Very well. We will live on acorns. sherman himself wrote Henry Halleck back in December 1864 while at Savannah: "I look upon Columbia as quite as bad as Charleston and I doubt if we shall spare her public buildings there as we did at Milledgeville." Miss Emma LeConte, as she watches the United States flag being raised over the Capitol of South Carolina, writes in her diary: "Oh what a horror! What a degradation. After four long bitter years of bloodshed and hatred, now to float there at last! That hateful symbol of despotism!"/1865

FEBRUARY 18:

• His Excellency, Jefferson Davis, is inaugurated Provisional President of the Confederate States of America today. In his Inaugural Address, he states: "We have entered upon the career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued. Through many controversies with our late associates of the Northern States, we have vainly endeavored to secure tranquility and obtain respect for the rights to which we were entitled. As a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of separation, and henceforth our energies must be directed to the conduct of our own affairs and the perpetuity of the Confederacy which we have formed. With a Constitution differing only from that of our fathers insofar as it is explanatory of their well-known intent, freed from sectional conflicts, which have interfered with the pursuit of the general welfare, it is not unreasonable to expect that States from which we have separated may seek to unite their fortunes to ours under the government which we have instituted. For this your Constitution makes adequate provision, but beyond this, if I mistake not the judgement and will of the people, a reunion with the States from which we have separated is neither practicable nor desireable."/1861 
• On this, the anniversary of the inauguration of the first President of the Confederacy, the fourth and last session of the Provisional Congress closes its session, and the first session of the Confederate Congress convenes in Richmond under the authority of the permanent Constitution/1862 
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Don Carlos Buell's advance takes Edgefield, Tennessee, across the river from Nashville/1862 Federals of Gregg's Cavalry Division, 150 men of the 1st New Jersey, 100 of the 1st Pennsylvania, 50 of the 3rd Pennsylvania, and 50 of the 1st Massachusetts, led by the traitor Cornwell, reach Salem, Virginia, this morning at 12:00am and begin searching for members of Mosby's Men. They divide at Rectortown, one party toward Middleburg and Upperville and another to Piedmont, Oak Hill, Markham, and Paris. This afternoon, Mosby's Men meet at Piedmont with Mosby who has just returned to the command, having been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Sixty ment and Mosby follow the raiders to within six miles of Warrenton, where the pursuit is given up on account of Gregg's whole cavalry division being encamped there; Mosby then goes toward the second party which rode toward Upperville. Mosby follows Cole's Men of the 1st Maryland Potomac Home Brigade and when he stops near Upperville to feed and water his horses, Mosby with 50 men attacks him from the rear, throwing him into confusion. Cole makes a stand at Blakely's Grove School House behind the stone fence at the Cross Roads, but Mosby flanks him and forces retreat. Mosby pursues Cole to Bloomfield and there quits the chase. Federal losses are 7 killed including Captain William L. Morgan, 8 prisoners with horses and equipments. One of the yanks was shot through the head and buried in the fence corner at Blakely's Grove. In a week, Mosby's Men will find two of Cole's dead near Bloomfield, half eaten by hogs. Confederates lose 3 wounded/1864 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLIINAS] In Charleston at 10:00am, five federal officers and 22 soldiers reach the Cooper River piers and climb ashore--the first yankees to set foot in Charleston, except for prisoners, since 1861. Mayor Charles MacBeth surrenders Charleston to Lieutenant Colonel A.G. Bennett, 21st US Colored Troops. A fire rages through the city, and the federals round up stray Negroes and put them to work on fire engines. Hardee abandons Charleston, and the federals move in from the Harbour to take control. Because he cannot cross in front of sherman, Hardee decides to move toward Cheraw/1865 
• Asked about the possiblity of black soldiers in the Confederate Army, General R.E. Lee says that blacks would make efficient soldiers/1865 
• Admiral Raphael Semmes takes command of the entire Confederate Navy/1865

FEBRUARY 19:

• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest withdraws from Nashville at the mayor's request after he brings the capital city to order and Edgefield across the River is taken by Buell/1862 
• Major Thomas Gibson, commanding 224 men of detachments of the 14th Pennsylvania and 21st New York Cavalry guided by a Confederate deserter named Spotts, crosses the Shenandoah River at Shepherd's Mill Ford, and passes through Ashby's Gap, dividing at Paris. Their aim: to arrest certain enemies and seize enemy's public property. One hundred men of the 21st New York goes to Upperville and searches homes for Mosby's Men. In searching for Rangers, the New Yorkers find two barrels of apple-jack on which they get terribly drunk, and the commander Major Gibson sends them back across the Shenandoah river to camp. Major Gibson with 124 cavalrymen of the 14th Pennsylvania reach Markham, Piedmont, and Upperville, missing their comrades and seeing several parties of Partisan Rangers, ride for Ashby's Gap. Major Richards, having by this time gathered a force of 43 men, resolves to hit the Pennsylvanians in the Gap. He overtakes them at Mount Carmel and routs them--carbines being no match for revolvers at short range. The narrow road from Mount Cramel to Shepherd's Mill becomes strewn with hats, belts, carbines, living and dead turkeys and chickens, and bloody snow of wounded men and horses. Federal loss is 13 killed, a great number wounded, 63 prisoners including several officers, 90 horses. Nineteen Patriot prisoners are released and many horses are recaptured and returned to owners. Confederate loss is one killed accidentally by his own men, and one slightly wounded. Mosby is still in the South recovering from a wound to the abdomen. He will come back later this month/1865

FEBRUARY 20:

• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] Albert S. Johnston begins to abandon Nashville, Tennessee/1862 
• The C.S.S. ALABAMA observes 28 degrees, 32 minutes North, and 45 degrees, 5 minutes West, in the middle of the Atlantic/1863
• Confederate General Joseph Finegan and 5200 men win the Battle of Olustee (Silver Lake), Florida, over 5115 union troops under T. Seymour but cannot make good on his victory because there are no railroad links between Georgia and Florida. Losses are US-1861, CS- 934/1864 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] sherman leaves Columbia in smouldering ruins amongst boos and hisses from the people. The vile incendiary moves toward Winnsboro/1865
  
• P.G.T. Beauregard dies, 1893.

FEBRUARY 21:

• The Honourable Robert Toombs of Georgia is appointed Secretary of State. The Honourable Christopher Gustavus Meminger of Charleston, South Carolina, is appointed Secretary of the Treasury. The Honourable Judah Philip Benjamin, a Jewish statesman, is appointed Attorney General/1861 
• William M. Martin is today one of the first to die for Southern Independence. He dies of exposure in South Carolina/1861 
• 2600 Confederates under H.H. Sibley win the Battle of Valverde, New Mexico Territory, over 3810 union troops under E.R.S. Canby. Losses: US-263, CS-196/1862 
• The ALABAMA chases two sails, capturing the GOLDEN EAGLE, leaving a prize crew on board, and capturing and burning the OLIVE JANE. Then the ALABAMA wheels for the GOLDEN EAGLE. After examining her papers, she is given the torch/1863 
• Mosby's command assembles at Piedmont for the funeral of a comrade, McCobb, who was killed by Cole's men. While assembling, a report comes in of a scouting party of 150 cavalrymen of the 2nd Massachusetts, also known as the California Battalion because five of its companies were mustered in San Francisco, and a platoon of the 16th New York Cavalry all under Captain J. Sewell Read are at Rector's Cross Roads. Mosby marches on Rector's and finds Read's men gone toward Mountville. Mosby sends a man with Sam Underwood to follow the federals and report to him while he moves his command to Dranesville, to rest with 160 men, intending to intercept the federals on their return to camp at Vienna. Meanwhile, Read encamps at Kephart's farm on the Dranesville road and is joined by a force under Major Frazar/1864 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] Kilpatrick moves to within short distance of Chester, tearing up railroad track and telegraph lines as he goes. Meanwhile, sherman captures Winnsboro, South Carolina/1865

FEBRUARY 22:

• Major Robert Anderson, commanding Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina, in honour of George Washington's birthday, fires 34 guns for all the original 34 United States, in utter scorn for the Confederate States/1861 
• His Excellency, Jefferson Davis pronounces the oath of the Presidency of the Confederate States of America under the permanent Constitution on this, the birthday of George Washington, symbolizing Southron's hope for a replay of the results of the First American Revolution, and in a way claiming a great Southron from history for the Confederate side/1862 
• Believing there are no union troops in town, William Clark Quantrill rides into Independence, Missouri, with 15 men and rides headlong into a column of union cavalry, which he charges. The guerrillas scatter and two are killed; Quantrill is wounded in the leg, but will have the audacity to attend one of the dead's funeral tomorrow, leaning quietly on a cane/1862 
• Nathan Bedford Forrest wins over Smith's cavalry at Okaloona, Mississippi/1864 
• Early this morning Mosby's command moves out to the pike to intercept Read on his return to camp and halt near Anker's shop two miles below Dranesville, to await the enemy. Company A and part of B under Lieut. Frank Williams are placed along the road's edge in thick pine woods to charge in their front. The rest of Company B and all of Company C under Captain William Chapman are to charge the rear, and fifteen dismounted carbineers are posted along the middle of the position. Soon the federals come along slowly and the fight is on, at first it is a hot fight, but the yankees soon break and flee under the intensity of Mosby's charge. Federal losses are 12 to 15 killed including Captain J. Sewell Read, the commander, 25 wounded, 72 prisoners, and 90 horses. Confederate losses are one man killed, J. Pendleton Chappalear of Fauquier, and among the four wounded is Baron von Massow. Captain Read wounded von Massow, and Captain Chapman, seeing the Baron fall, killed Read by a well-directed shot. Charles Binns, a deserter of Mosby's command, had piloted the raid/1864 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] James Eggleston Johnston is appointed commander of all troops in North Carolina and South Carolina. Kilpatrick takes Lancaster with some disorder. sherman leaves Winnsboro, South Carolina, in ashes and heads for Cheraw/1865

FEBRUARY 23:

• Sterling Price, granted his wish, is ordered by Richmond to lead a campaign to recover Missouri/1863 
• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] sherman's entire army is at the banks of the Wateree River which is flooded from rains. The right wing crosses the Wateree at Peay's Ferry and bivouacks ironically at Liberty Hill, South Carolina/1865 
• Confederate Congress orders an arming of the servile population to fill the empty ranks of the Confederate Armies. For military service, the Confederate government will give freedom to black servants and make monetary restitution to the former masters after the Independence of the Confederacy/1865

FEBRUARY 24:

• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] Adams leads a raid on Camden destroying government stores and demolishing public buildings/1865 

FEBRUARY 25:

• President Davis sends Roman, Forsyth, and Crawford to Washington to discuss peace terms with lincoln. United States Supreme Court Justice from Alabama, acting as mediator, tells the Peace Commissioners that Seward will evacuate Fort Sumter and not reinforce Fort Pickens at Pensacola yet nothing happens/1861 
• Governor Pickens of South Carolina telegraphs President Davis that a war steamer of the United States is lying off Charleston bar laden with reinforcements for Fort Sumter and that he would like advice as to what to do. President Davis replies that Governor Pickens should us his own discretion/1861 
• Confederate Congress declares that the Mississippi River is freely opened to navigation by all states of the Confederacy/1861
• [TENNESSEE RIVER OFFENSIVE] A.S. Johnston completes his withdrawal from Nashville/1862
  
• In accordance with Congress' orders, the first Confederate Negro Company is formed and begins drill/1865

FEBRUARY 26:

• [sHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS] In the mud and rain, sherman's left wing, slipping, stumbling, swearing, singing, and yelling reaches Hanging Rock, South Carolina/1865 

FEBRUARY 27:

• As of today, from zero ships one year ago, today the Confederate Navy has 33 ships/1862 
• Congress authorizes the Davis administration to declare martial law and suspend the writ of habeas corpus in cities dangerous of attack/1862 
• The C.S.S. ALABAMA chases and captures the WASHINGTON of New York at 30 degrees North, 40 degrees West. Being neutral, laden on the account of the Peruvian government, she is released on ransom bond; the ALABAMA sends her prisoners on board the WASHINGTON and bids her depart/1863

FEBRUARY 28:

• In Montgomery, the Confederate government begins debate on a draft of the Permanent Constitution/1861 
• Confederate Congress authorizes $50,000,000 in the form of 8% bonds/1861 
• The ALABAMA overhauls two English and one French ship/1863

FEBRUARY 29:

• US Colonel A.H. Grimshaw, commanding cavalry division in Virginia, sends out a scouting party of 200 men under Major Nicholson, 16th New York Cavalry, at 2:00pm to look for 5 of Mosby's Rangers who were seen this morning near Chichester Mills. They search from Anandale to the Occuquan River by Wolf Run Shoals; thence between Bull Run Battlefield and Centreville, to Gum Spring, Frying Pan, and around Dranesville. Tonight Grimshaw sends out two parties of dismounted men, one of 75 men and two of 50 men each to try to ambush Mosby's Men at a point where they are expected to pass. 375 MEN IN PURSUIT OF 5/1864