The Confederates Evacuate Alexandria for the Second and Final Time

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the Union occupation of Alexandria, Virginia. (Yes, yet another event to commemorate as part of the Sesquicentennial. . . .)  Probably the best-known story of the invasion is the murder of Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, who was shot taking down a Confederate flag flying atop the Marshall House.  Ellsworth's death is a pretty familiar topic by now, so rather than go over old ground, I'd like to shed light on another aspect of the Union takeover on May 24, 1861.

As I discussed in a couple of recent posts, Virginia volunteers evacuated Alexandria at the start of May 1861.  (See here and here.)  Readers may recall that Lt. Col. Algernon Taylor lost his job for abandoning the city in disobedience of an order from Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cocke.  Algernon was replaced by Col. George H. Terrett, a former Marine, who was commander when Virginia voters approved the Ordinance of Secession on May 23.  He would soon have the unenviable task of ordering a retreat that would leave Alexandria in Union hands for the duration of the war. 

Early on the morning of May 24, 1861, three main columns of Federal troops moved quickly to occupy Virginia.  Two of the columns crossed the Potomac at the Aqueduct and Long Bridges.  The 11th New York Fire Zouaves, under Col. Ellsworth, boarded steamers and disembarked at the wharves in Alexandria.  The U.S.S. Pawnee covered the regiment from the river.  After crossing the Potomac at Long Bridge, the First Michigan, under Col. Orlando B. Wilcox, marched down Washington Street towards Alexandria.

Terrett had already put his troops on high alert earlier that morning after learning that a squadron of Union cavalry had entered Virginia across the Chain Bridge.  Around 4:30 a.m., a U.S. Navy officer went ashore from the Pawnee and met with Col. Terrett under a flag of truce.  According to Terrett, the officer "informed me that an overwhelming force was about entering the city of Alexandria, and it would be madness to resist, and that I could have until 9 a. m. to evacuate or surrender."  Terrett wasted no time in organizing an evacuation.  Surrender was not an option.

Civil War-era photograph of the Lyceum at 201 S. Washington Street (courtesy of Historic Alexandria).

The Lyceum in Old Town today.

The Virginia troops, including units that would soon form the 17th Virginia Infantry, proceeded to the Lyceum on Washington Street.  From there, Terrett marched them down Duke Street and away from Wilcox's advancing soldiers.  The Old Dominion Rifles narrowly escaped capture, but in the end, managed to join up with the main body of troops.  The retreat was covered by two cavalry units -- Captain Edward Powell's Fairfax Cavalry and Captain Mottrom Dulany Ball's Chesterfield Troop.

Terrett reported that his Virginians "five hundred in number, retreated in good order."  The Union troops were hard on the tail of Terrett's force, whose rear guard was "in sight of and within two hundred yards of the advance guard of the enemy."  Given the apparent aggressiveness of the pursuit, one wonders how sincere of a choice Terrett was given between surrender and evacuation. 

Ball accompanied Terrett and his men as far as Ball's quarters, "a little west of the railroad depot" on the Orange & Alexandria R.R.  The volunteers continued for a half-mile beyond the depot, where they boarded cars for Manassas.  Terrett asked the cavalry to follow in his rear, but for whatever reason, Ball's thirty-five men took too long, and were captured by the Federals.

As the train headed down the tracks, Terrett had his men burn the railroad bridges behind them. A contingent of Union troops "pursued [the Confederates] a short distance, also burning such bridges as they had spared." (Report of Maj. Gen. Samuel P. Heinzelman, July 20, 1863.) Around half past five, Col. Wilcox was able to report to Washington, "Alexandria is ours."

Terrett's force arrived safely in Manassas and joined other Confederate soldiers assembling in the vicinity.  Brig. Gen. Milledge Bonham, commander at Manassas, reported to Maj. Gen. Robert E. Lee on May 25:

The Alexandria (Va.) troops are here, without cooking utensils, and many without arms. Please send to the quartermaster of this place cooking utensils and other camp equipage for six hundred men, as destitute men are hourly joining me. Caps, ammunition, and arms greatly needed.

Lucky for Bonham, the Federal advance on Manassas was still a couple months away.

Note on sources
For a complete set of reports associated with the Union occupation of Alexandria, see the Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 2, Part 1, pp. 37-44. Further information can be found in Alexandria in the Civil War by James G. Barber (1988) and 17th Virginia Infantry, from the Virginia Regimental History Series, by Lee A. Wallace, Jr. (1990).

The Rebels Evacuate Alexandria for the First Time (Part 2)

As discussed in Monday's post, Lt. Col. Algernon Taylor ignored an order from his direct commander, Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cocke, and evacuated Alexandria with his force of Virginia volunteers on May 5, 1861.  Cocke ordered Taylor back to Alexandria from Springfield, Virginia.  He was on the verge of arresting Taylor for disobedience, but first sought permission from Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander-in-chief of Virginia forces.

Robert E. Lee, from an 1861 edition of Harper's Weekly (courtesy of sonofthesouth.net)

Lee was a bit more willing than Cocke to hear Taylor's excuses.  On May 8, Lee sent word to Cocke through Virginia Naval officer J.M. Brooke, acting aide-de-camp, that "[t]he general commanding directs that you will not arrest Colonel Taylor, but require from him an explanation."  A day later, Taylor wrote his detailed response to Cocke as to why he had abandoned Alexandria.

Taylor first attributed his retreat to "the inefficient condition of a large proportion of the troops and my exposed and indefensible position."  He explained that many of the soldiers under his command were poorly armed and equipped.  Two companies of "raw Irish recruits," for instance, carried only "the altered flint-lock muskets of 1818, and without cartridges or caps."  One of his cavalry companies had only a few Colt revolvers, but otherwise possessed "no arms or equipments of any kind."

Taylor also asserted that his men, many native to Alexandria, "were becoming almost useless from home influences." Their commander feared that they "were necessarily scattered over the city," and that "it would have been impossible to have assembled the command at any particular point in time to have defended itself with the slightest possibility of success, or even to have made anything but a disastrous and demoralizing retreat in the face of an enemy."

Last of all, and probably most importantly, Taylor believed that Alexandria faced an imminent attack.  He wrote to Cocke:

I was possessed of, apparently, such reliable information that the Government at Washington would occupy Alexandria on the 6th or 7th instant, and knowing that a large force was being concentrated at Fort Washington and that two steamers were anchored off Mound Vernon, I was induced to suppose that from that point an attempt would be made, in concert with a force from Washington City, to hem in my small and inefficient command, and thereby the services of good material be lost to my State and our cause.

As evidence of the planned Federal movement, Taylor enclosed a copy of an alleged order that he obtained secretly from a former War Department employee that "shows the intention of the Federal Government as to Alexandria."  (The order was lost by the time the OR were compiled.)

Cocke was far from pleased with Taylor's justification, however well-grounded it was. His subordinate had disobeyed a direct order to remain in Alexandria unless forced to retreat by "overwhelming and irresistible numbers." In doing so, he had left the city dangerously exposed to a Union advance. Taylor was relieved of command on May 10, and replaced by Col. George H. Terrett, a former U.S. Marine.  Curiously, Cocke did not forward Taylor's report to Lee until May 13, so it appears that the insubordination issue was settled outside the channel of official correspondence.

Note on Sources

The entire text of correspondence related to this story can be found in the Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 2, Part 1, pp. 23-27.

Additional informaiton is available in Alexandria in the Civil War by James G. Barber (1988) and 17th Virginia Infantry, from the Virginia Regimental History Series, by Lee A. Wallace, Jr. (1990).

The Rebels Evacuate Alexandria for the First Time (Part 1)

Last week, I wrote about the Virginia state forces converging on Alexandria towards the end of April 1861.  Troops in the Potomac Department, including those based in Alexandria, were under the overall command of Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cocke.  The general, an 1832 graduate of West Point, had become a wealthy planter in Virginia and Mississippi before the war.  Now he shouldered the tremendous responsibility of organizing the defense of Northern Virginia as the Union Army watched menancingly from across the Potomac.  At the start of May, Cocke suddenly found himself thrust into the middle of a controversy involving one of his subordinates.

Philip St. George Cocke (courtesy of Encyclopedia Virginia)

On May 5, Cocke drafted an order from his headquarters in Culpeper Court House and had it delivered by messenger to Lt. Col. Algernon S. Taylor, commander of the Virginia forces in Alexandria:

You will not move the troops out of Alexandria unless pressed by overwhelming and irresistible numbers; and even then you should retire to Manassas Junction, to hold that point, assist in obstructing and breaking up the road between that point and Alexandria, harassing the enemy should he attempt to use the road, and not retire farther in the interior unless overpowered and forced, as a last extremity, to so retire.

According to Cocke's correspondence in the Official Records, Taylor received the order on the fifth and was well aware of its contents.  Although Alexandria was not under attack, Taylor decided to disregard Cocke's order and abandon the town. He gathered his command, including the 6th Battalion of Virginia Volunteers, and left Alexandria that evening.  The volunteers got as far as Springfield on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad.  

Cocke was furious upon learning that Taylor had abandonded Alexandria.  Around 10 p.m. on May 6, he dashed off a note to Col. R.S. Garnett, adjutant-general to Maj. Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander-in-chief of Virginia forces:

. . . [S]o far as I am informed up to this moment, there was no proper or justifiable cause whatsoever for any such movement. After waiting for further intelligence and receiving none, and duly considering and weighing all the circumstances and bearing of that movement with the information before me, I have ordered the return of the troops . . . . 

Cocke eventually ascertained that no military personnel were left in Alexandria to receive his telegrams containing the order to Taylor.  (Presumably the telegram office would have arranged for the order to be delivered to Taylor at his field headquarters.)  In the early morning hours, Cocke scrambled to send his aide, Giles B. Cooke, to Springfield with a copy of the order.  Arriving at his destination by rail, Cooke handed the order to Col. George Terrett, who had left Alexandria to join Taylor.  Cocke wrote to Terrett:

I am not informed of any circumstance whatsoever that could have furnished just and sufficient cause . . . of the movement of the troops out of Alexandria . . . .  I must therefore now order that the troops return to Alexandria, . . . .  If, however, there has been any new and treating movement by the enemy unknown to me, and which in your judgment may render it impracticable of imprudent to return to Alexandria, communicate the fact to me, and, in the mean time, exercise a sound discretion as to your acting.

Taylor, under order to return and facing no real threat, had little choice but to lead his men back to Alexandria. They arrived around noon on the seventh.  Cocke was incensed by the entire episode.  He asked General Lee:

Shall I arrest Colonel Taylor for disobedience of order and unsoldier-like conduct, in having evacuated Alexandria, under the circumstances. . . ? I shall await your orders in this particular connection.

Cocke was in no mood to hear excuses.  His subordinate had disobeyed orders and left Alexandria exposed.  Taylor's fate was now in Lee's hands.

The Fairfax Rifles Head to Alexandria

Before the Civil War, volunteer militias were common throughout both the North and South. William Dulany, who later served as a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention, organized the Fairfax Rifle Rangers in Fairfax Court House on December 1, 1859.  Many such companies of Virginia Militia were formed in the aftermath of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in October of that year.  Dulany became captain of the Fairfax Rifles, which was assigned to the 60th Regiment (Fairfax County) of the Virginia Militia.  One of the earlier members of the Fairfax Rifles was James Jackson, who would achieve infamy across the North for gunning down Col. Elmer Ellsworth of the 11th New York Fire Zouaves in May 1861.

Mobilization of military forces in Virginia gained momentum in the days following the adoption of the Ordinance of Secession. Towards the end of April 1861, the Fairfax Rifles headed to Alexandria, an important port city not far down the Potomac River from Washington. Led by Lieutenant William A. Barnes, the Fairfax Rifles arrived on April 25.  They took up quarters on Prince Street, not far from the intersection with Fairfax Street.

Alexandria buzzed with martial activity. Soldiers from various local units, as well as militia companies from other parts of Northern Virginia, were stationed around town.  The Fairfax Rifles joined Major Montgomery Corse's command, which by the end of April consisted of several state militia companies, including the Mount Vernon Guard, the Alexandria Riflemen, the Old Dominion Rifles, the Alexandria Artillery, the Emmett Guards, the Loudoun Guard, and the Warren Rifles.  On April 27, Corse's units officially became the 6th Battalion of Virginia Volunteers.  The battalion was assigned to the overall command of  Lt. Col. Algernon S. Taylor, who led the state troops in Alexandria.  Taylor was the nephew of President and Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor.

General Montgomery Corse, who in the spring of 1861 was a major leading the 6th Battalion of Virginia Volunteers at Alexandria (courtesy of Wikipedia)

The Virginia militia leaders in Alexandria feared a possible Union invasion after adoption of the Ordinance of Secession.  They watched anxiously as the Union military presence in Washington grew.  The Fairfax Rifles, like other units, was assigned to guard the city streets and to keep an eye out for potential movements by Federal troops.  Life was not completely mundane.  The militia soldiers attracted the attention and admiration of the young women of Alexandria.  And at least one picket station was located in close proximity to a local brewery that kept beer on hand for the thirsty militiamen.

Later, in June 1861, Corse's battalion was organized into the 17th Regiment of Virginia Infantry. The Fairfax Rifles were designated as Company D, under Captain Dulany.  It is ironic that Dulany, who feared that secession would bring war to Fairfax's doorstep, was now actively playing a role in events that would ensure the very outcome he most feared.

Note on Sources

The following sources were useful in compiling this post:

Alexandria in the Civil War by James G. Barber (1988).

American Civil War Armies (5): Volunteer Militia by Philip Katcher & Ronald Volstad (1989).

"History of the Seventeenth Virginia Regiment, C.S.A," from the website of the Fairfax Rifles reenactment unit.

17th Virginia Infantry, from the Virginia Regimental History Series, by Lee A. Wallace, Jr. (1990).