14 February 1862, Friday

Union - government
In Washington (as well as Richmond) news from the West - and the status of Fort Donelson - is anxiously awaited.

President Lincoln grants amnesty to all political prisoners who will take an oath not to aid the rebellion.

Confederate - Military
Kentucky
The rear guard of General Hardee's remnants leave the town of Bowling Green and soon afterwards, Union soldiers march in.

Tennessee
After a day of bombardment between the Union gunboats and the fort (see Union military below) a coucil of Confederate generals discuss how they can escape the fort if necessary.

Union - Military
Kentucky
There is skirmishing near Cumberland Gap.

Missouri
There is skirmishing at Crane Creek.

Western Virginia
There is skirmishing at Bloomery.

Tennessee
General Grant is assigned by the War Department to command the District of West Tennessee, and William Tecumseh Sherman is assigned the District of Cairo.

At Fort Donelson, four ironclads and two wooden gunboats on the Cumberland attack the fort. Nothing much happens on the land side.

After heavy bombardment from the fort, the gunboats are forced to withdraw downstream to the north. Flag Officer Foote is wounded and his ironclads St. Louis and Louisville drift away, their steering mechanisms destroyed.



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