In a cold, wintery rain that lasted all day, Jefferson Finis Davis was inaugurated as the permanent president of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia's capitol square .  He had been elected the previous November for a term of six years.  In a ceremony before the Washington Monument also dampened by the recent defeat at Fort Donelson, Davis was sworn in by an Episcopal bishop standing in for the absent Chief Justice and gave a short speech. He had been serving on a provisional basis since early 1861.  (By John Osborne)

Just after midnight, on the unwritten orders of General George McClellan, Brigadier General George Sykes and a squad of infantry arrested Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone at his Washington hotel on unspecified charges.  The new Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War had largely selected Stone as scapegoat for the Ball's Bluff defeat in late 1861 and he had recently had a heated exchange with Senator Charles Sumner.  Stone was held at Forts Lafayette and Hamilton in New York without charge until his release on August 16, 1862.  (By John Osborne)

After the failure to break out the day before, Confederate commanders determined their position hopeless and asked for surrender terms. Famously, Union commander U.S. Grant refused all terms and thousands of Confederates became prisoners in what was celebrated across the North as a turning point in the war.  Some Confederates escaped; Brigadier General John Buchanan Floyd, under indictment by Congress for treason, fled by boat and the cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forest led his men to safety in the early morning darkness. (By John Osborne) 

In freezing winter weather, the Confederate defenders of Fort Donelson in Stewart County, Tennessee made a powerful attempt to break out of the 25,000 man Union siege.  Attacks on the Union right-wing began in the morning and by noon had succeeded in opening an escape route.  But hesitation doomed the attempt and reorganized Union counter-attacks were able to reclose the siege lines by dark.  Fort Donelson and most of its 17,000 men surrendered the next day. (By John Osborne) 

In freezing winter weather, the Union forces under U.S. Grant had surrounded Fort Donelson and its 17,000 defenders two days before.  On this day, significant reinforcements brought the besiegers' strength up to around 25,000 men.  In the afternoon, naval units under Andrew Hull Foote attacked from the river but the impressive Confederate artillery defenses held and inflicted significant damage on the U.S. Navy gunboats, driving them off and wounding their commander aboard his flagship, the USS St. Louis.   (By John Osborne) 

Brigadier General Grant marched his troops from the site of his recent victory at Fort Henry across land from the Tennessee River to the much more daunting Confederate strongpoint at Fort Donelson, on the banks of the Cumberland in Stewart County, Tennessee. In freezing winter weather, the Union forces surrounded the fort and its 17,000 defenders and began probing its defenses.  Meanwhile, a small attack by U.S. Navy gunboats tested the Confederate riverside gun emplacements.  (By John Osborne) 

Union troops under General Ambrose Burnside, together with naval forces under Flag Officer Louis Goldsborough, effected successful landings on twelve by three mile Roanoke Island, an important position controlling the eastern coastal waters of North Carolina.  Landings took place on the Friday afternoon and the next day a series of engagements culminated with the surrender of  2,500 poorly trained Confederate defenders and their forts to Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut units under Brigadier General John Foster.  (By John Osborne)

Taking immediate advantage of the opening of the Tennessee River after the fall of Fort Henry, a task force of three naval gunboats was dispatched to raid up the river into Tennessee and Alabama. Dubbed later "the Great Tennessee River Raid," the Lexington, Conestoga, and Tyler, under Lieutenant Seth L. Phelps, USN, moved deep into Confederate territory, reaching as far as Florence, Alabama, capturing riverboats and destroying or confiscating supplies before rejoining the main fleet.  (By John Osborne)