16 Jan 1862: Thursday

Union - Government
Edwin Stanton takes over the War Department, "with a drive and efficiency that startled those used to the previous slipshod management."

Union-Military
Florida
Union forces arrive at the harbor and village of Cedar Keys. They burn several small blockade-runners and coastal vessels, a pier and some railroad flatcars, then withdraw.

Confederate-Military
Kentucky
Confederate forces camped near Beech Grove and with their backs to the Cumberland River in the south, hear reports of Union advances under George H. Thomas, but no action is taken.

The Confederates, led by Brigadier General Felix K. Zollicoffer, had been at Mill Springs, south of the Cumberland, but had taken them (unwisely, as it would later turn out) north of the river. The new commander, Brigadier General George B. Crittenden, had ordered them to retire south of the river, but they had not done so.

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Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971