On this date 150 years ago, Alexandria, Virginia, was occupied by Federal troops moving quietly across the Potomac River. In this way the Union began to defend Washington, D. C. Virginia troops displayed little resistance. The first Union combat fatality of the Civil War occurred during this move. 24 year old Elmer Ellsworth, head of the 11th New York Regiment, died in an attempt to remove a Confederate flag from a hotel roof. The man who shot Ellsworth, the hotel keeper James Jackson, was then shot by a Union soldier. Both the North and South had martyrs for their respective causes. Newspapers gave full play to the emotions in reporting the events - "Jackson perished amid the pack of wolves" was the way one Southern newspaper chose to describe the killing.

In an action that provoked questions as to the disposition of slaves by the North, General Benjamin F. Butler held three slaves at Fort Monroe. The issue was quickly interpreted as one of whether slaves were to be regarded as contraband. This would become an increasingly difficult controversy, ultimately ruled on by Secretary of War Cameron in July 1861.