The RMS Sea King, entirely ballast with coal, rendezvous, in the Madeira Islands, of the Indian Ocean, with the fast steamer HMS Laurel, carrying 19 Officers and Sailors of the Navy of the Confederate States, and six cannons.  The crew and guns are transferred to the Sea King, which is rechristened as the CSS Shenandoah.  The Sea King had been purchased by the Confederate government to raid compulsory Union commerce.  The Shenandoah is 220 feet long, 32.5 feet wide, weighs 1,018 tons, and is propeller-driven by a 250-horsepower steam engine, with a top speed of eight knots—a speed that could be doubled with the use of sails.

       [added 4/16/2022]

      Battle of Belle Grove/Cedar Creek (Virginia): Major General Philip Sheridan commanding the compulsory Union Army of the Shenandoah, defeats the Confederate (a voluntary union) Army of the Valley, commanded by Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early.  Sheridan now begins destroying the Confederacy’s most fertile farm lands.

       NOTE: Nearly 1,000 Americans lost their lives.

       [restored 4/16/2022]