THE FIRST INVASION OF VIRGINIA.

481

banners, and heard the sounds of their measured foot-falls borne on the still night air, with the deepest emotions, for it was the first initial act of an opening campaign in civil warfare, whose importance no man could estimate.

Two miles distant from this passing column was another crossing the Long Bridge. It consisted of the National Rifles under Captain Smead, and a company of Zouaves under Captain Powell, who drove the insurgent pickets toward Alexandria, and took

position at Roach's Spring, a half a mile from the Virginia end of the bridge. These were immediately followed by the Constitutional Guards of the District of Columbia under Captain Digges, who advanced about four miles on the road toward Alexandria. At two o'clock in the morning, a heavy body, composed of the New York Seventh Regiment; three New Jersey regiments (Second, Third, and Fourth), under Brigadier-General Theodore Runyon, and the New York Twelfth and Twenty-fifth, passed over. The New York troops were commanded by Major-General Charles W.

THEODORE RUNYON.

Sandford, who, at the call of the President, had offered his entire division to the service of the country.

The New York Seventh Regiment was halted at the end of the Long

1 This is a view of the Aqueduct Bridge at Georgetown, over which flow the waters of the Chesapeake and

Ohio Canal, in its extension to Alexandria, after having traversed the valley of the Potomac from the eastern base of the Alleghany Mountains. The picture is from a sketch made by the writer in the spring of 1865, from the piazza in the rear of the Cumberland House, which was the residence of Francis S. Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," at the time when that poem was written. See Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812. Arlington Hights are seen beyond the Potomac, with Fort Bennett on the extreme right, the flag of Fort Corcoran in the center, and three block-houses on the left, which guarded the Virginia end of the bridge. Several of these block-houses were built on Arlington Hights early in the war, all having the same general character of the one delineated in the annexed engraving. They were built of heavy hewn timber, and were sometimes used as signalstations.

482

MILITARY OCCUPATION OF ALEXANDRIA.

Bridge. One New Jersey regiment took post at Roach's Spring, near which a redoubt was cast up, and named Fort Runyon, in honor of the Commanding General under whose direction it was constructed. It crossed the road leading from the Long Bridge to Alexandria, near its junction with the Columbia Turnpike. The remainder of the troops, including the New York Seventh and a company of cavalry under Captain Brackett, now joined those who crossed the Aqueduct Bridge, and these forces combined took possession of and commenced fortifying Arlington Hights.

In the mean time, the New York Fire Zouave Regiment,' under Colonel Ephraim E. Ellsworth, who had been encamped on the east branch of the Potomac, near the Navy Yard, were embarked on two schooners and taken to Alexandria; while the First Michigan Regiment, Colonel Wilcox, accompanied by a detachment of United States cavalry commanded by Major Stoneman, and two pieces of Sherman's battery in charge of Lieutenant Ransom, marched for the same destination by way of the

Long Bridge. The troops moving by land and water reached Alexandria at about the same time. The National frigate Pawnee was lying off the town, and her commander had already been in negotiation for the evacuation of Alexandria by the insurgents. A detachment of her crew, bearing a flag of truce, now hastened to the shore in boats, and leaped eagerly upon the wharf just before the Zouaves reached it. They were fired upon by some Virginia sentries, who instantly fled from the town. Ellsworth, ignorant of any negotiations, advanced to the center of the city, and took possession of it in the name of his Government, while the column under Wilcox marched through different streets to the Station of the Orange and Alexandria Railway, and seized it, with much rolling stock. They there captured a small company (thirty-five men) of Virginia cavalry, under Captain Ball. Other Virginians, who had heard the firing of the insurgent pickets, escaped by way of the railroad.

ELLSWORTH ZOUAVES.

Alexandria was now in quiet possession of the National troops, but there

2 Sherman's Battery, which, as we have observed, accompanied the Pennsylvania troops under Colonel Patterson (see page 445), consisted of six pieces. The whole battery crossed the Long Bridge on this occasion. but only four of the pieces were taken to Arlington Hights.

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DEATH OF COLONEL ELLSWORTH.

483

were many violent secessionists there who would not submit. Among them was a man named Jackson, the proprietor of an inn called the Marshall House. The Confederate flag had been flying over his premises for many days, and had been plainly seen from the President's house in Washington. It was still there, and Ellsworth went in person to take it down. When descending an upper staircase with it, he was shot by Jackson, who was waiting for him in a dark passage, with double-barreled gun, loaded with buckshot. Ellsworth fell dead, and his murderer met the same fate an instant afterward, at the hands of Francis E. Brownell, of Troy, who, with six others, had accompanied his commander to the roof of the house. He shot Jackson through the head with a bullet, and pierced his body several times with his saberbayonet. The scene at the foot of that staircase was now appalling. Immediately after Jack

THE MARSHALL HOUSE.

son was killed, a woman came rushing out of a room, and with frantic ges-.

tures, as she leaned over the body of the dead inn-keeper, she uttered the wildest cries of grief and despair. She was the wife of Jackson.

Ellsworth's body was borne in sadness to Washington by his sorrowing companions, and funeral services were performed in the East Room of the White House, with President Lincoln as chief mourner. It was then taken to New York, where it lay in state in the City Hall, and was afterward carried in imposing procession through the streets before being sent to its final resting-place at Mechanicsville, on the banks of the upper Hudson. Ellsworth was a very young and extremely handsome man, and was greatly beloved for his generosity, and admired for his bravery and patriotism. His death produced great excitement throughout the country. It was the first of

EPHRAIM ELMORE ELLSWORTH.

1 On the preceding day (May 23d) a Confederate flag, flying in Alexandria, had attracted the attention of the troops in Washington City. Just at evening, William McSpedon, of New York City, and Samuel Smith. of Queen's County, Long Island, went over and captured it. This was the first flag tuken from the insurgents.

484

FIRST DEFENSES OF WASHINGTON.

note that had occurred in consequence of the National troubles; and the very first since the campaign had actually begun, a few hours before. It intensified the hatred of rebellion and its abettors; and a regiment was raised in his native State (New York) called the Ellsworth Avengers.

Intrenching tools were sent over the Potomac early on the morning of the 24th, and the troops immediately commenced casting up intrenchments and redoubts, extending from Roach's Spring, on the Washington and Alexandria Road, across Arlington Hights, almost to the Chain Bridge. The brawny arms of the Sixty-ninth (Irish) Regiment soon piled up the banks of Fort Corcoran, on the Arlington estate, while the less vigorous men of the New York Seventh,

a greater portion of whom were unaccustomed to manual labor, worked with surprising zeal and vigor in the trenches with their more muscular companions in arms. Fort Corcoran was the first to assume a regular form, and when partly finished a flag-staff was raised, and the National banner was unfurled from it with imposing ceremonies.' That and Fort Runyon were the first regular works constructed by the National troops at the beginning of the civil war, and the first over which the flag of the Republic was flung At that point a small detachment of cavalry, under Lieutenant Tompkins, who had crossed the Chain Bridge, was stationed. Other fortifications were speedily constructed; and in the course of a few days there was a line

out.

1 On that occasion a group of officers stood around the flag-staff. Among them was Colonel Corcoran, the commander, Colonel (afterward Major-General) David Hunter, and Captain (afterward Brigadier-General) Thomas Francis Meagher. At the request of Corcoran, John Savage, his aid, the well-known Irish poet, sang a song, entitled The Starry Flag, which he had composed on the war-transport Marion, on the 18th of May. while on her perilous voyage with the regiment up the Potomac, exposed to the masked batteries planted by the Confederates on the Virginia shore. This song may be found in a collection of a few of Mr. Savage's poems, entitled Faith and Fancy. It is full of stirring sentiment.

TROOPS IN VIRGINIA.-MOUNT VERNON,

485

of strong intrenchments extending from the Potomac toward Arlington House, across the Columbia Turnpike, and the railway and carriage-road leading to Alexandria; also detached batteries along Arlington Hights almost to the Chain Bridge, which spans the Potomac five or six miles above Washington. These, well manned and mounted, presented an impregnable barrier against any number of insurgents that might come from Manassas Junction, their place of general rendezvous. A reference to the map on the preceding page will show the position of the National troops on this the first line of the defenses of Washington, at the beginning of June.'

a

⚫ May 25, 1861.

May 27.

General Sandford, of the New York militia, took temporary command of the forces on Arlington Hights; and when he ascertained that the family of Colonel Lee had left Arlington House a fortnight before, he made that fine mansion his head-quarters, and sent word to Lee, then at Richmond, that he would see that his premises should receive no harm. He issued a proclamation, in which he assured the frightened inhabitants of Fairfax County that no one, peaceably inclined, should be molested, and he exhorted the fugitives to return to their homes and resume their accustomed avocations. Two days afterward,' he was succeeded by General McDowell, of the regular Army, who was appointed to the command of all the National forces then in Virginia. Colonel Wilcox, who was in command at Alexandria, was succeeded by Colonel Charles P. Stone, who, as we have observed, had been in charge of the troops for the protection of Washington City during the latter part of the winter and the spring of 1861. Stone was soon recalled to the District, and was succeeded by the veteran Colonel S. P. Heintzelman, of the regulars, who, by order of General Scott, took special care for the protection of the estate of Mount Vernon from injury, and the tomb of Washington from desecration. It is a pleasant thing to record, that while the soldiers of both parties in the contest during the struggle were alternately in military possession of Mount Vernon, not an act is known to have occurred there incompatible with the most profound reverence for the memory of the Father of his Country.

The conspirators, alarmed by these aggressive movements, and by others in Western Virginia, took active measures to oppose them. The whole military force of Virginia, of which Robert E. Lee was now chief commander, was, as we have observed, placed, by the treaty of April 24, under the absolute control of Jefferson Davis; and by his direction, his Virginia lieutenant, Governor Letcher, issued a proclamation on the 3d of May, calling out the militia of the State to repel apprehended invasion from "the Govern

1 This map was copied from one published early in June, 1861, and suppressed by the Government, because it afforded valuable information to the insurgents.

2 See page 383.