After he had seen the Michigan troops well cared for, Mr. Chandler, on the 19th of May, in company with Senators Wade and Morrill and John G. Nicolay, the private secretary of President Lincoln, sailed for Fortress Monroe to visit General Butler, and see the condition of his newly-organized army. On the following day the party started to return on the steamer Freeborn, and as they were passing through Hampton Roads heard heavy cannonading, which proved to be an artillery duel between the steamer Monticello and a battery erected by the rebels at Sewell's Point, where the Elizabeth river empties into Hampton Roads. The Freeborn went at once to the assistance of the Monticello, and being of light draft approached within 300 yards of the battery and opened fire with her guns. The columbiads of the Virginians were soon disabled, and the rebels were scattered in every direction, Mr. Chandler pronouncing the spectacle "the best ball-playing he had ever seen." On her voyage up the Potomac the Freeborn seized two suspicions boats, and found them loaded with a company of fifty rebel soldiers on their way to join "the Confederate army." Both vessels were brought to the Navy Yard at Washington and they were the first prizes taken during the war, and the men on board were the first rebel prisoners captured. On the night of the 23d of May, the Union forces at Washington crossed the Potomac and proceeded to seize and fortify advantageous positions on Virginia soil. The First Michigan accompanied the famous Zouave regiment by ferry-boats to Alexandria, taking possession of that city in the night. Mr. Chandler went with the Michigan men, and was the only civilian who was allowed to accompany this wing of the expedition. He was with a detachment of soldiers who surprised and captured a party of forty rebel dragoons, including four officers, and he was in Alexandria when Colonel Ellsworth fell and private Brownell instantly avenged his death. Of this event, since obscured by four years of carnage, but which then first brought to excited millions some sense of the dreadful realities of war, he was the first to bear the news to the authorities at Washington.