Irvin McDowell to Edward D. Townsend, June 17, 1861

Lieut. Col. E. D. TOWNSEND,

CoLONEL: Brigadier-General Tyler, with part of the Connecticut regiment, made, agreeably to instructions, a reconnaissance up the Loudoun and Hampshire Koad as far as Vienna. He found all the bridges and the road in good order. All the rolling stock of the road between Vienna and Leesburg he reports as having been burned, to prevent it falling into our hands. One of the sleepers, which had been set on fire by the droppings of the locomotive, gave rise’/to the report from the telej graph station near Arlington Mills that the bridges had been set on fire and were burning, and that General Tyler was beyond them. ) Whilst near Falls Church one of the Connecticut regiment, Private George Bigbee, Captain Comstock’s company, was wounded in the ‘ shoulder by a shot from the roadside. The man suspected of having fired it was captured, and is in jail in Alexandria. It isreported re-enforcements have been sent from Manassas to Fairfax Court-House.

I have the honor to be, colonel, very respectfully, your most obedient ©