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 a 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 taken 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 out. 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

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.'

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 › May 27. General McDowell, of the regular Army, who was appointed to

• May 25, 1861.

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. * See page 383.

486

ATTACK ON SEWELL'S POINT BATTERY.

ment at Washington." He designated no less than twenty places in the State as points of rendezvous for the militia. One-fourth of these places were westward of the mountains. At the same time the insurgents strengthened the garrison at Harper's Ferry, and erected batteries on the Virginia bank of the Potomac, below Washington, for the purpose of obstructing the navigation of that stream, and preventing supplies for the army near the Capital being borne upon its waters. This speedily led to hostilities at the mouth of Acquia Creek, fifty-five miles below Washington City, and the terminus of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railway, where the insurgents had erected batteries to command the river: one at the landing, and two others, with a line of intrenchments, on the hights in the rear. The guns of these batteries had been opened upon several vessels during the few days that the National troops had occupied the Virginia shore, when they were responded to by Captain J. H. Ward, a veteran officer of the Navy, who had been in the service almost forty years.

May 16, 1861.

At the middle of May," Ward had been placed in command of the Potomac flotilla, which he had organized, composed of four armed propellers, of which the Thomas Freeborn was his flag-ship, and carried 32-pounders. He was sent to Hampton Roads to report to Commodore Stringham. Before reaching that commander he had an opportunity for trying his guns. The insurgents who held possession of Norfolk and the Navy Yard had been constructing batteries on Craney Island and the main, for the protection of those posts, by completely commanding the Elizabeth River. They had also erected strong works on Sewell's Point, at the mouth of the Elizabeth;' and at the middle of May they had three heavy rifled cannon in position there, for the purpose of sweeping Hampton Roads. This battery was masked by a sand-hill, but did not escape the eye of Captain Henry Eagle, of the National armed steamer Star, who sent several shot among the workmen on the Point, on the 19th. The engineers in charge, supported by a company of Georgians and some Norfolk volunteers, sent several shot in response, five of which struck the Star, and she was compelled to withdraw. That night almost two thousand of the insurgent troops were sent from Norfolk to Sewell's Point, and these were there on the morning of the 20th, when Commander Ward opened the guns of the Freeborn upon the redoubt. The battery was soon silenced, and the insurgents were driven away.

May 29, 1861.

Ward reported to Stringham, and proceeded immediately toward Washington with his flotilla. On his way up the Potomac, and when within twenty-five miles of the Capital, he captured two schooners filled with fifty insurgent soldiers. He then proceeded to patrol the river, reconnoitering its banks in search of batteries; and on the 31st of the month he attacked those at Acquia Creek, in which service the Freeborn was assisted by the gunboats Anacosta and Resolute of his flotilla. For two hours an incessant discharge upon the batteries was kept up, when all the ammunition. of the flotilla suitable for long range was exhausted. The three

1 See map on page 399.

2 The insurgents magnified this withdrawal, cansed by a lack of ammunition, into a repulse, and claimed a victory for themselves. "This is the first encounter in our waters, and the victory remains with us," said a writer at Norfolk. No one seems to have been hurt, on either side, in this engagement.

ATTACK ON ACQUIA CREEK BATTERIES.

487

a June 1.

1861.

batteries had been silenced. On the slackening of Ward's fire, the two on the hights began again, and for nearly an hour they poured volleys of heavy shot on the flotilla like hail, but only wounding one man. Unable to reply at that distance with effect, Ward withdrew his vessels, but resumed the conflict on the following day, in company with the sloop-ofwar Pawnee, of eight guns, Captain S. C. Rowan. For more than five hours, a continuous storm of shot and shell assaulted the works on shore. This cannonade and bombardment were briskly responded to by the insurgents, who seemed to have an ample supply of munitions of war. Twice their batteries were silenced, but their fire was resumed whenever that of the flotilla

ceased. The Pawnee became the chief object of their attention. She was hulled four times, and nine shots in all struck her; and yet, neither on board of this vessel nor of those of Ward's flotilla was a single person killed or seriously injured. During the engagement, the large passenger and freight house near the landing was destroyed by fire.

At about this time, another aggressive movement was made by the United States forces. It was important to gain information concerning the advance of the insurgents, said to be at Fairfax Court House at the close of May. Lieutenant Charles H. Tompkins, with seventy-five of Company B. of the Second Regiment of United States Cavalry, stationed, as we have seen, on Arlington Hights, was sent on a scout in that direction. He left Fort Corcoran at half-past ten in the evening of the 31st,' and reached Fairfax Court House at about three o'clock the next morning, where Colonel (afterward General) Ewell, late of the United States

b May, 1861.

This picture is from a sketch made by Mr. E. Forbes, an excellent artist, then accompanying the National forces. Acquia Creek Landing, with the shore battery, is seen in the foreground, with the bluffs rising back of it. The spectator is looking toward the northwest, up Acquia Creek, at the mouth of which is seen a sloop. The line of intrenchments is seen on the bluffs back of the landing.

2 Report of Commander Ward to the Secretary of the Navy, May 31 and June 1, 1861. Report of Comtander Rowan to Secretary Welles, June 2, 1861.