Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/227

Rh the time, and provided boats at Castleman's ferry on the Shenandoah to make good his communications with Gen. D. H. Hill, who was encamped at Leesburg, east of the Blue ridge.

February, 1862, was a month of Confederate disasters; the capture by the Federals of Fort Henry and Roanoke island, Fort Donelson and Nashville; the evacuation of Lexington, Mo., Bowling Green and Columbus, Ky., followed one after another. In this period of gloom, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President of the Confederate States.