11th New York Infantry - Early Action

Early Action

The regiment arrived in Washington, D.C., on the evening of May 2. There, they completed additional training and performed picket duty throughout the District. While quartered on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, the enlisted men took it upon themselves to set up a mock session, passing a law first abolishing the House of Representatives, then the Union and reconstituting both in a manner of their liking. The more embarrassing and lawbreaking actions by the regiment included the burning of fences, which resulted in a letter of reprimand from Brigadier General Joseph K. Mansfield along with six enlisted men being removed and sent back to New York. On May 7, the 11th New York was officially sworn into Federal service by Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the East Front of the unfinished Capitol in the presence of Lincoln, his son Tad and personal secretary John Hay.

On May 9, the regiment had an opportunity to apply their experience as firefighters when asked to help extinguish a blaze at the Willard Hotel. Upon receiving word from General Mansfield, commander of the Department of Washington, Ellsworth dispatched ten men from each company to attend to the fire. Soon however, the entire regiment responded to the blaze. With Ellsworth having more men on the scene than the Washington Fire Department, he claimed the fire chief's trumpet and assumed command of the incident. When the fire was extinguished, Henry Willard, owner of the hotel, invited the regiment to breakfast and money was collected providing them with $500.

After nine days quartered at the Capitol, the men of the 11th New York were moved to the heights near the Insane Asylum to Camp Lincoln. This move would allow for easy transport across the Potomac and into Virginia when necessary. While just five miles (8 km) from the Capitol, the standard of living the men were used to had changed dramatically, as their usual foodstuffs were replaced with beef steak, dry bread, and coffee. Ellsworth wrote to his wife that they had not had butter in a week.

When the Commonwealth of Virginia seceded from the Union on May 23, the regiment was ordered to assist in the occupation of Arlington Heights and Alexandria, Virginia, directly across the Potomac River from Washington. On May 24, the regiment boarded the steamers Baltimore and Mount Vernon and was transported across the Potomac, landing at the Alexandria wharves under the guard of the gunboat Pawnee. The 11th New York was one of eight to enter Virginia, and Ellsworth's men met no resistance as they moved through the streets.

After landing, members of Company E under Captain Leveridge were sent to take the railroad station, while Ellsworth, Major Charles Loeser, Lieutenant H. J. Winser and several men from Company A set out to secure the telegraph office. On the way there, Ellsworth spotted a Confederate flag atop the Marshall House inn. It was the same flag Ellsworth had seen for weeks from the White House during his visits with Lincoln. Ellsworth's group entered the inn and quickly cut down the flag, but they encountered the proprietor, James Jackson, as they descended the stairs. Jackson killed Ellsworth with a shotgun blast to the chest, and Cpl. Francis Brownell responded in kind by fatally shooting the innkeeper.

After the death of Ellsworth, Noah L. Farnham, the regiment's lieutenant colonel, was the obvious choice to take command. He was reluctant, however, labeling it an "unwelcome responsibility". His appointment was graded as temporary, he was not commissioned as the regiment's colonel and remained at rank while in its command. Regardless, he was a popular choice both with the enlisted men and in New York. One enlisted wrote in a letter home, "We have great faith in Colonel Farnham, having known him long and intimately as one deserving the confidence and esteem of his associates, and fully deserving of the position that he now occupies." Several of the officers recruited by Ellsworth, however, did not approve and caused a small controversy by resigning their commissions.

The regiment remained on guard duty in and around Alexandria until July 15, 1861, when orders were received attaching the regiment to Orlando B. Willcox's brigade, of Samuel P. Heintzelman's division, in Brig. Gen. Irvin McDowell's Army of Northeast Virginia. They were to march out the next morning. From July 16 to July 21, the regiment advanced to intercept Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard's Confederate Army of the Potomac. Three of McDowell's five divisions advanced towards Bull Run, outside the railroad junction at Manassas, Virginia. The 11th New York expected to first engage Confederates at Fairfax Court House on July 17, only to find that they had pulled back towards Centreville, leaving Quaker Guns in their place. These movements were to precipitate the first large-scale battle of the Civil War.