For the first three and a half years of the War between the States, the military actions took place simultaneously in two different areas: a small area in northern and northeastern Virginia and a western area in the region bounded by the Mississippi River, the Cumberland River, and the Appalachian Mountains. For most of the war, the Confederate forces were on the defensive side. With General Robert E. Lee as Commander-in-Chief, the Confederates had unity of command whereas the Union forces actually had five successive generals before appointing Ulysses S. Grant as the supreme commander. Many of the best military minds were fighting on the Confederate side, and it is believed by several historians that only their great strategic ability and planning against larger military forces with better equipment and clothing kept the war from being concluded at a much earlier date. The major objective of the Federal government became a clearcut one, namely, to capture Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. Thus, a chief aim of the military forces in Virginia was the protection and defense of Richmond at all times. Virginia lost Accomack and Northampton Counties on the Eastern Shore at the beginning of the war and was unable to obtain control of Union Fort Monroe. On May 24, 1861 the Fire Zouaves, a unit of the United States Army, marched from Washington to Alexandria, the first point of invasion in Virginia in the War between the States. They took possession of Alexandria in the name of the United States and found no organized opposition because there were no Southern troops here. Virginia had not been ready for war and had made no preparations for war. The only standing army in the state at the time of her secession was a group of soldiers whose duty had been to guard public property in Richmond. Several volunteer companies had organized in various parts of the state for the first time after John Brown's Raid. One of the first immediate tasks to be done was the training of soldiers in Virginia and the acquiring of cannon and fire-arms. Consequently, it was not unusual for Alexandria not to have had an organized force by May 24, awaiting Federal invasion. As these Fire Zouaves entered Alexandria, they noticed a Confederate flag flying from the top of a small hotel called the Marshall House. Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the Federal commander, decided to obtain this flag. He entered the hotel, ran up the stairs to the roof and grabbed it. He had started to descend the stairs with his trophy when, at the first landing, he met the hotel owner, James W. Jackson, who had been curious to know who had been rushing up the stairs and invading his hotel. When he saw the Confederate flag in the hands of the Federal officer, he shot him in the breast. Ellsworth died instantly and Jackson was immediately killed by bullets and bayonets used by Ellsworth's troops. This was the first blood shed in Virginia in the War between the States.