The Associated Press listed some major events for the week of February, 1862. The first one was the Battle of Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River near Dover, Tenn. It marked the first Yankee victory of the Civil War when Grant captured the Fort. Boo-hiss. Fortunately 2000 Confederate fighters were able to escape before Grant captured those remaining.
On February 22, 1862 Confederate President Jefferson Davis was re-inaugurated in Richmond. He had previously been elected Provisional President , Feb 18, 1861 in Montgomery. He said "...we are in arms to renew such sacrifices as our fathers made to the holy cause of constitutional liberty." This shows that the Confederates thought they were doing what their Revolutionary Ancestors had done by forging a new nation, and that they had the right, by virtue of the Constitution to secede.
On February 26, Nashville was occupied, becoming the first Confederate state capitol to fall to Union forces as Confederate fighters retreated to Alabama and elsewhere. Nashville's occupation angered Southerners and secession-minded women in Memphis began practicing with guns. Others, including here in Alabama, began raising money for a Confederate gunboat.
Lincoln's 11 year old son, Willie, died at the White House on Feb. 20 of typhoid fever. How sad and shocking that was for President and Mrs. Lincoln. The Davis's also lost a son at the White House in Richmond during the war, when 5 year old Joe fell from the balcony of the house to his death.
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