Union General John Pope had arrived in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri ten days before with a strong force and began to encircle the stragically important town.  The seige ended when the Confederate commander took a final opportunity to avoid complete encirclement and evacuated, leaving most of his artillery and supplies, to consolidate on the Confederate bastion at Island Number 10 nearby.  This allowed Pope to seal off and, on April 7, 1862, eventually to capture that fortress and further open the Mississippi River system for the Union.  (By John Osborne) 

The Maryland State Legislature voted 56-38 to nominate the distinguished lawyer Reverdy Johnson to the United States Senate to replace the retiring American Party member Anthony Kennedy.  Johnson, a Unionist and a moderate Democrat who had served in the U.S. Senate before, defeated William Price and the more radical Henry Winter Davis in the caucus. He did not take up his seat officially, however, until March 4, 1863, and served till he was appointed minister to Great Britain in 1868.  (By John Osborne)

Confederate Generals Lloyd Tilghman and Simon Bolivar Buckner, captured at the surrender of Fort Donelson two weeks before, arrived under heavy guard in Boston, Massachusetts.  Met by a large crowd of curiousity seekers at the station, the two men were escorded by horse cab to the Union Wharf where a steamer took them immediately to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor for incarceration. The two were held there till August 1862 when they were exchanged for two Union officers of similar rank. (By John Osborne)

Combined Union forces had sailed from Port Royal, South Carolina four days before under Commodore Samuel Du Pont and Brigadier General Horatio G. Wright to invest Fernandina on Amelia Island and nearby Fort Clinch, the northern-most Confederate base in Florida.  The U.S.S. Ottawa entered the harbor at Fernandina and found all Confederate forces gone. Fort Clinch was a Union coastal strongpoint for the rest of the war. (By John Osborne)

Benjamin McCulloch emigrated to Texas with Davy Crockett and became a hero in the War of Texas Independence against Mexico.  He then became the most famous captain in the history of the Texas Rangers, leading his men on numerous clashes with Indians and serving in the Mexican War.  As a Confederate general, he had helped win the victory at Wilson's Creek in 1861 and was leading the right wing attacks at the Battle of Pea Ridge when he was shot from his horse by a Union rifleman and killed instantly.  He was fifty-one years old.  (By John Osborne)