and strengthening Leesburg, under command of Colonel Hunton, with several regiments of infantry and companies of cavalry and artillery, to protect that place, the line of the railway to Alexandria, and watch the fords of the Potomac. On the 12th, Federal gunboats in the Potomac were brought up in front of Alexandria. On the 21st of May, Brig.-Gen. M. L. Bonham was put in command of the Alexandria line, and established his headquarters at Manassas Junction. Troops from all portions of the South were ordered forward to that place, which, it was rumored, was threatened with early attack.
On May 24th, the day after the citizens of Virginia approved her ordinance of secession, about a dozen regiments of Federal infantry, with cavalry and artillery, at 2 a. m. crossed the Potomac by the aqueduct and the long bridge, and by steamer at Alexandria, and took possession of Arlington heights, Alexandria and the intermediate front of the Potomac, driving out the Confederates, some 500 men, from Alexandria, at half-past four, and capturing Ball's company of cavalry. The Confederates fell back to Manassas and the Federals at once began fortifying their front, after advancing their pickets several miles on the roads leading into Virginia. The supposition of Colonel Terrett, who evacuated Alexandria, was that the Federals proposed to advance toward Leesburg. The next day Bonham reported to Lee that he then had at Manassas Junction but 500 infantry, four pieces of artillery and one troop of cavalry.
Before the opening of the Manassas campaign there were a number of minor affairs, of which a condensed account may be here given:
On May 21st, and again on June 1st, two armed steamers attacked the Confederate battery established at Aquia creek on the Potomac, but without doing much damage. Colonel Ruggles promptly moved 700 men across from Fredericksburg, with some 6-pounder rifle guns, and engaged the gunboats successfully. He then established Bate's Tennessee regiment in a camp at Brooke Station, and returned the rest of his forces to Fredericksburg.
On June 1st, Lieutenant Tompkins, with 75 men of the Second United States cavalry, sent on a scout, drove in the pickets and charged through Lieut.-Col. R. S. Ewell's camp, at Fairfax, between three and four in the morning. A lively skirmish ensued, forcing the Federals to pass around the village in retreat, after some loss. Colonel Ewell was wounded, and Captain Marr, of the Warrenton rifles, was killed, while bravely rallying their men. This attack was made without orders, and McDowell says it frustrated, for the time, a