Almon Case was an Ohio-born farmer and state senator in Obion County, Tennessee. He had took up loyalty to the Union after the Battle of Shiloh and had thereby garnered enough hostility in the deeply divided county to be be murdered in cold blood, a few weeks after his teenage son, both by a returned Confederate soldier and former friend named Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Farris. The murders received wide and lurid press coverage in the North and were touted as one more case of returned Confederates acting with impunity against freedmen and Union loyalists.  (By John Osborne)

Just before nine in in the morning, fire broke out under the stage at the famous Winter Garden Theater on New York City's Broadway.  The fire spread remarkable quickly and after less than a half hour, the building's roof fell in.  Although no-one was harmed, the destruction was reported to have cost around $250,000 in addition to the total loss of valuable collections of costumes of the actors, including Edwin Booth, then performing Hamlet at the venue.  (By John Osborne)

The famous Washington Monument in Richmond, Virginia had been unveiled in 1858.  Below the equestrian statue of the President, the images of six other famous Virginians were later added.  On this day, in a driving rain, it was the turn of the image of former Chief Justice John Marshall to be installed on its plinth. (By John Osborne)

In New Orleans, the traditional Mardi Gras holiday of Shrove Tuesday is celebrated with enthusiasm.  (By John Osborne)

The magnificent Lindell Hotel in the city center of St. Louis, Missouri was completed destroyed by a fire that broke out around eight o'clock in the evening and burned all night.  Opened in October 1863, the building was reportedly the largest building of its kind in the United States but its size told against it when the blaze, which broke out on the fifth floor and spread to the sixth and seventh, was unreachable with the city's firefighting equipment till it was too late.  No serious injuries were reported but the financial loss was estimated in one newspaper as an enormous $1.6 million dollars.  (By John Osborne)