Captain Philbrick, with twenty men of that regiment, crossed in three small boats, hauled them upon the bank, went up the bluff by a winding path, moved cautiously through the woods, also through a cornfield, and went within a mile and a half of Leesburg, seeing no pickets, hearing no alarm. But the men saw what they thought was an encampment. They returned at midnight and reported to General Stone, who ordered Colonel Devens to go over with about half of his regiment and hold the bluff. The only means which General Stone had for crossing troops was one flat-boat, an old ferry-boat, and three small boats. Colonel Devens embarked his men on the boats about three o'clock in the morning. The soldiers pushed them to the foot of the bluff, then returned for other detachments. The men went up the path and formed in line on the top of the bluff. By daybreak he had five companies on the Virginia shore. He moved through the open field towards the encampment which Captain Philbrick and his men had seen, as they thought, but which proved to be only an opening in the woods. But just as the sun's first rays were lighting the Catoctin hills he came upon the Rebel pickets in the woods beyond the field. The pickets fired a few shots and fled towards Leesburg, giving the alarm. The town was soon in commotion. The drums beat, the Rebel troops then rushed out of their tents and formed in line, and the people of the town jumped from their breakfast-tables at the startling cry, "The Yankees are coming!" General Evans, the Rebel commander, the day before had moved to Goose Creek to meet General McCall, if he should push beyond Dranesville. He had the Eighth Virginia, the Thirteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Mississippi Regiments, and a squadron of cavalry and four pieces of artillery. Captain Duff, commanding a detachment of the Seventeenth Mississippi, was left at Leesburg. As soon as Colonel Devens's advance was discovered, he formed his men in the woods and sent word to General Evans, who hastened with his whole brigade to the spot. General Stone placed Colonel Baker, commanding the First California Regiment, in command of the forces upon the Virginia side of the river. Colonel Baker was a Senator from Oregon,--a noble man, an eloquent orator, a patriot, and as brave as he was patriotic. During the forenoon a portion of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Colonel Lee, was sent over.