On this date 150 years ago, President and Mrs. Lincoln suffered the tragedy of losing their 12 year old son, Willie, to typhoid fever. This personal stress was compounded by the news of the fatalities at Fort Donelson; the President seemed engulfed by sorrow.

Further pullbacks by Confederate troops resulted in the evacuation of Columbus, Kentucky. In Tennessee, the Confederate Governor Isham Harris decreed that the state capital would be fixed at Memphis as Nashville was in the line of Union troop advances. At the latter location, the Southern army was commanded by General Albert Johnston to move to a position southeast of the city near Munfreesboro. A group of 1000 late arrivals to the Southern defense at Fort Donelson were captured by Union troops.