President announces that public safety renders it necessary to withhold reasons for arresting members of Maryland Legislature. Henry J. Raymond, The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln . . . Together with his State Papers, including his Speeches, Addresses, Messages, Letters, and Proclamations and the Closing Scenes Connected with his Life and Death (New York: Derby & Miller, 1865), 378.

Lincoln writes Gen. Halleck that Gen. Grant can hold Fort Donelson, Tenn., unless overwhelmed from outside. To prevent this disaster enemy forces from Bowling Green, Ky., could be cut off by having gunboat destroy railroad bridge at Clarksville, Tenn. In the event Nashville is defended by forces from all South, "Could not a cavalry force from Gen. Thomas on the upper Cumberland, dash across, almost unresisted, and cut the Railroad at or near Knoxville, Tenn.?" Abraham Lincoln to Henry W. Halleck, 16 February 1862, CW, 5:135.