_Federal troops defeated at Olustee, Fla., 1864_ February Twenty-First The Ku Klux Klan was a great Law and Order League of mounted night cavalrymen called into action by the intolerable conditions of a reign of terror.... It was the old answer of organized manhood to organized crime masquerading under the forms of government.... Women and children had eyes and saw not, ears and heard not. Over four hundred thousand disguises for men and horses were made by the women of the South, and not one secret ever passed their lips! THOMAS DIXON, JR. The View of a "Reconstructionist" The Ku Klux Order was a daring conception for a conquered people. Only a race of warlike instincts and regal pride could have conceived or executed it. Men, women, and children must have, and be worthy of, implicit mutual trust. They must be trusted with the secrets of life and death without reserve and without fear. JUDGE ALBION W. TOURGEE (Ohio) February Twenty-Second First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life; pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting. HENRY LEE (_Father of Robert E. Lee_) _George Washington born, 1732_ February Twenty-Third Won in the Name of Virginia; Governor Patrick Henry to Colonel George Rogers Clark: "You are to retain the Command of the troops now at the several posts in the county of Illinois and on the Wabash, which fall within the limits of the County now erected and called Illinois County.... You are also to take the Command of five other Companies, raised under the act of Assembly which I send herewith, and which if completed, as I hope they will be speedily, will have orders to join you without loss of time, and are likewise to be under your command.... The honor and interest of the State are deeply concerned in this." _George Rogers Clark appears before Vincennes, 1779_ _Battle of Buena Vista; Col. Jefferson Davis wounded, 1847_ _Mississippi readmitted to the Union, 1870_ February Twenty-Fourth The importance of this brilliant exploit was destined to be far greater than even Clark foresaw, for when the treaty of peace was being negotiated at Paris in 1782, our allies, France and Spain, were both more than willing to sacrifice our interests in order to keep us out of the Mississippi Valley, and the western boundary of the United States would undoubtedly have been fixed at the Alleghanies instead of the Mississippi, but for the fact that this western region was actually occupied by Virginians. S. C. MITCHELL The vast Northwest had been thus won by a heroic band of volunteers, led by one of the most dauntless warriors that ever risked life for country. THOMAS E. WATSON