can procure, and that arrangements be made for the fabrication of suitable ammunition. These are intended as precautionary measures, which can better be made now than upon the eve of an emergency, should it arise."
On the 15th of June, Colonel Magruder, by authority from the governor, called into active service the Sixty-eighth and One Hundred and Fifteenth regiments of Virginia militia, to rendezvous at Yorktown on the 24th, fully organized. The commandant of the Norfolk navy yard was ordered on the 18th to furnish eight 32-pounders, carriages for ten 42-pounders, and four large launches and cutters, as early as possible, for the defenses of York river. On the 19th the steamer Northampton was transferred to the war department for an army transport on James river.
On the 20th Colonel Magruder issued a general order assigning troops to various posts in his department. Colonel Ewell was assigned to the duty of erecting fortifications in the vicinity of Williamsburg, in conjunction with Capt. A. L. Rives, of the engineers; Col. D. H. Hill, with his First North Carolina regiment, was assigned to the command of the post at Yorktown, with directions to submit further plans for its defense; Col. T. P. August, with his Fifteenth Virginia regiment, was assigned to Williamsburg, to prosecute the defensive works at Grove landing, Spratley's farm, King's mill and Tutter's Neck, under the supervision of Colonel Ewell and Captain Rives; Col. Charles A. Crump, with his Twenty-sixth Virginia regiment, was assigned to Gloucester point, and Col. J. G. Hodges, with the Fourteenth Virginia regiment, to Jamestown island.
Left in temporary command at Yorktown, Col. D. H. Hill wrote, June 15th, to General Lee:
The enemy is burning for revenge for his total rout at Bethel church. There can be no doubt that he will attempt to take this point, either by a night surprise or by a regular siege. We are totally unprepared for either alternative. The development of our lines is so great that they cannot be manned with less than 6,000 troops. Now we have no siege guns at all, and our forces are divided between Bethel church, Grove landing and Williamsburg. We are therefore liable to be beaten in detail with our present weak force, and the York line may be lost at any moment. At this time there are scarce 3,000 men in Yorktown and our lines cannot possibly be defended with fewer than 6,000. Permit me, then, to urge that more troops may be sent here, and that some dozen siege guns be mounted in our batteries.
