Feb. 19, 1862

Feb. 19, 1862: Gen. Grant, after the victory at Ft. Donelson, advances troops toward Clarksville, Tennessee, a key railroad junction on the way to Nashville, discovering it unoccupied. Commodore Foote steams up the Cumberland and occupies the town. Grant makes plans to advance on Nashville, even though it is technically outside of his department, and is supposed to be captured by Gen. Buell---who has not made a move toward Nashville.

---The Richmond Daily Dispatch editorializes about the Union victory at Ft. Donelson: "If these bloody barbarians, whose hands are now soaked to the elbows in the life-blood of men defending their own homes and firesides, dream that they are now one inch nearer the subjugation of the South than when they started on their infernal mission, they prove themselves to be fools and madmen as well as savages and murderers."

---As Col. Green of the 5^th Texas Cavalry advances towards the Valverde ford on the Rio Grande, Col. Canby of the Federal army sends two regiments of New Mexico troops, commanded by Col. Miguel Pino and Col. Kit Carson, towards Valverde to intercept the Rebels.