urs, on the 19th of May, the
bombardment of the U.S. ships "Minnesota" and "Monticello."

The Confederate War Department felt such confidence in the engineering
and administrative ability of General Huger, that it endorsed the
action of Virginia by giving him a brigadier's commission and
instructions to put Norfolk and the avenues of its approach in complete
state of defense. A sufficient garrison of picked troops--among them
the Third Alabama and some of the best Richmond companies--was given
him; and Norfolk was soon declared securely fortified.

The Peninsula was even more exposed to land attack from Fortress
Monroe; and General John B. Magruder had been sent there with a part of
the Virginia army, with headquarters at Yorktown. General Magruder had
long been a well-known officer of the U.S. Army, where his personal
popularity and a certain magnificence of manner had gained him the
sobriquet of "Prince John." He possessed energy and dash in no mean
degree; and on arriving at his sphere of duty, strained every nerve to
put the Peninsula in a state of defense. His work, too, was approved by
the Confederate War Department; the commission of brigadier conferred
upon him, and re-enforcements--sufficient in its judgment, though not
in his--were sent at once to his command.

While Fortress Monroe threatened the safety of Norfolk, and, by the
Peninsula of the lower approaches to Richmond, Alexandria could hold a
formidable army, ready at any moment to swoop down by the upper and
more accessible approaches around Orange Courthouse. The occupation of
Alexandria by the Union forces on the 24th of May was looked upon by
Confederate leaders as the most decided act of war yet ventured upon
by their wary adversary. Whatever may have been done within the
_non-seceded_ states, the South deluded herself that it was simply
an exposition of the power of the government--a sort of Chinese warfare
of gongs and tom-toms. The passage of the Potomac and seizure of a city
under the aegis of the Confederate Government was actually crossing the
Rubicon and carrying the war directly into the southern territory.
Fortress Monroe and other fortified points still held by the United
States, in the South, were conceded to be in a measure hers, at least
by the right of possession; but Alexandria was considered part and
parcel of the Confederacy, and as such sacred from invasion. Hence no
means were taken to prevent its occupation. On Virginia soil--ma