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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.
1
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 Headquarters, 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.
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New York State militia. |
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;
2 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
Government ”
